A group of 12 scientists, advocates and policymakers has formed its own autism research advisory committee, following the dramatic reshaping of a federal advisory committee earlier this year. The two groups each aim to influence the future of autism research by offering recommendations to federal agencies about which areas to prioritize. And with dueling meetings […]
Astrocytes in the hypothalamus and the lateral septum regulate oxytocin and drive social behaviors in mice, according to two preprints posted in February. The findings offer a potential link between glial cell signaling and social difficulties associated with autism. In the lateral septum, astrocytes respond to oxytocin to regulate social fear in mice—and these processes […]
Seniors research: A news feature in Nature explores autism in older adults, documenting the paucity of research in this area. The article reviews the condition’s links to age-related diagnoses such as heart disease, dementia and Parkinson’s disease, and highlights more recent research on short- and long-term memory, the physical and psychological aspects of menopause, and […]
There is some confusion about what neurodiversity-affirming assessment actually looks like in the real world. Some people worry that affirming care means rubber-stamping whatever someone already thinks, while others worry that differential diagnosis—a systematic process used to identify the most accurate condition(s) (or neurotype) from a set of possible competing conditions (or neurotypes)—inevitably undermines lived […]
Infection during pregnancy causes almost immediate changes to placental cells called spongiotrophoblasts, according to a new study in mice. That change compromises maternal immune tolerance of the fetus and in turn sets off a cascade of inflammation that ultimately leads to behavioral differences in some male pups, the researchers found. “The biggest surprise is just […]
Gene fix: In-vivo base editing can mitigate autism-like effects in mice carrying a variant of the CHD3 gene, according to a new paper. The variant, found in people with Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, causes altered sociability, cognition and motor coordination in mice. A TadA-embedded adenine base editor, delivered brain-wide via an adeno-associated virus, restored CHD3 protein […]
In retrospect, it’s so obvious that I was autistic when I was a kid. But because I was a little girl in the ’70s and ’80s, no one picked up on the fact; they just called me “weird” and “intense” and “emotional” and “too sensitive,” among other unpleasant things. I was diagnosed autistic four years […]
Different genetic variants associated with autism converge on common biological processes that shape the developing brain, according to a large study of organoids derived from autistic people’s cells. Individual variants initially alter neurodevelopment in distinct ways, but over time they all disrupt neuron maturation and other key processes, the study shows. Previous work, including postmortem […]
Sex bias: This week, new preprints highlight the influence of sex on the occurrence of de novo variants in autism and on the specific neural pathways that show altered connectivity in the condition. Sex bias also showed up in another study, which found that prenatal exposure to COVID-19 infection is associated with an increased likelihood […]
Adolescent girls and boys are diagnosed with autism at nearly equal rates even though, earlier in childhood, boys are about three times as likely to receive this diagnosis, according to a new study. The results add to mounting evidence that autistic girls tend to be diagnosed later in life than autistic boys. This disparity could […]
Microglia may be a key mediator between maternal immune activation and a pup’s memory of contextual fear conditioning in early infancy, a new mouse study reports. The findings sharpen the picture of memory formation in early life, but the study’s approach to microglia has raised questions. That scrutiny comes as scientists reevaluate concepts such as […]
Essential workers: A new study details the molecular pathways that connect cortical interneuron dysfunction to neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and epilepsy. Variants of the ARX gene, which encodes a transcription factor, lead to impaired cell cycles and altered migration of interneurons. The LOM1 gene, a downstream target, plays a role in how ARX affects […]
