Folate fuss: Internet searches and prescriptions for leucovorin have risen significantly since a White House announcement last September touting it as a treatment for autism, according to new investigations. That publicity led to 1 million additional internet searches for leucovorin in the two weeks following the announcement, one paper detailed, and a 14-fold increase in […]
The largest study to date of leucovorin’s effectiveness for treating autism traits has been retracted because of data inconsistencies and statistical issues, according to a notice posted last week by the European Journal of Pediatrics. The study included 77 autistic children and is one of only five randomized clinical trials that have tested leucovorin, also […]
Microglia safeguard the proliferation and survival of young GABAergic interneurons by secreting insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), according to a new study of human brain tissue and organoids. The finding points to the potential origin of the brain signaling imbalance implicated in autism and other conditions. Microglia contribute to brain development, past findings show, but […]
In this “Brain Inspired” episode, Paul Middlebrooks talks with Xiao-Jing Wang, distinguished global professor of neuroscience at New York University, who just released his new textbook, “Theoretical Neuroscience: Understanding Cognition.” They discuss how neuroscience has changed over the past 50 years and how Wang believes modern theoretical tools will lead to a new era of “cross-levels […]
Daniel Grizelj/Getty Images About 48 percent of editors of autism-specific journals are women, according to a spectrum analysis. That fraction is far higher than for neuroscience journals, for which just 30 percent of editors are women, according to a study published Monday in Nature Neuroscience. The new study looked at editors at the top 50 […]
Illustration by Laurène Boglio Welcome to this month’s edition of the By the Numbers newsletter. At Spectrum, we do our best to summarize the latest in autism research. Sometimes the best summary is a chart or map. In this newsletter we put interesting new research results in a nutshell, which are conveyed most concisely through […]
Homogeneous crowd: The average percentage of black speakers at neuroscience conferences remains zero, even as institutions commit to increasing diversity. Cimmerier / Getty Images Since the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the percentage of black moderators at neuroscience conferences has increased by just 3 percentage points, according to a new analysis. The study, published […]
damirkudisch / iStock The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has lifted its refund policy for the organization’s annual meeting after an outcry from would-be conference attendees on social media. Those who no longer want to attend the meeting can request a refund of the registration fee, the organization announced today. Neuroscience 2021 was planned as a […]
Discarded Plans: The decision followed a Spectrum survey that found that most autism researchers did not plan to take part in it in person. d1sk / iStock The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual meeting, which typically attracts more than 30,000 researchers, postdocs and PhD students from around the world, will be held entirely online, the […]
