Illustration by Laurenne Boglio Welcome to the first monthly edition of Null and Noteworthy. We’ve doubled the newsletter’s frequency to deliver more notable null results and replications direct to your inbox. Thanks, as always, for your feedback, and please continue to send your thoughts, ideas, interesting studies and cat photos to laura@spectrumnews.org. Let’s dive in. […]
Pop-up: A medical alert system notifies physicians when patients are eligible to enroll in a research study for autism. Lorenzo Capunata/Getty Images An algorithm that scans electronic health records and alerts doctors to a patient’s eligibility for SPARK, a large genetic study of autism, led to a fourfold increase in enrollment in the project, according […]
Kristin Sainani Associate teaching professorStanford University A study published last month in the British Journal of Psychiatry claimed that people who die by suicide have an elevated likelihood of being autistic or having undiagnosed autism, based on an analysis of coroner records and family interviews. Spectrum asked statistics expertKristin Sainani for her thoughts on the […]
Kristin Sainani Associate Teaching Professor, University of Stanford A study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics prompted headlines such as “Boys who watch television for at least two hours a day are 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age three, a study found.” spectrum asked statistics expert Kristin Sainani, Associate Teaching Professor […]
Population prospects: Large mutations in six chromosomal regions confer a lower likelihood of autism and other diagnoses than previously thought, according to a study of people born in Denmark. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images Some rare mutations linked to autism may boost a person’s chances of having the condition less than prior work suggests, according to a […]
The authors of a 2013 study that appeared to uncover a mechanism by which the immune system influences synapse development have retracted the paper after discovering errors and failing to replicate their findings. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, showed how astrocytes secrete an immune protein called transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) that kicks off a […]
Citation inflation: Autism studies, among others, appear in the reference lists of unrelated articles, possibly in an attempt to artificially improve authors’ metrics. Half Dark/Getty Images One contribution deals with the aesthetic beauty of plant landscapes. Another reviews the use of anesthetics in cancer patients. A third aims to optimize the efficient operation of buses […]
No matter what language they speak or what their background is, parents around the world tend to speak to their babies in the same way: with high-pitched, sing-song-style language called “baby talk” or “mom.” They tend to also to change certain words “cute”, such as “horse” for horse or “puppy” for dog. Not only is […]
Because autism is such a broad spectrum, it encompasses both people who enjoy driving and are good at it, as well as those who will never be able to drive due to the way their symptoms manifest themselves. And of course, in the middle of that spectrum, there are also large numbers of people who, […]
Data breach: Upon release, researchers discovered flaws that undermined their conclusions about autism, sleep, and vitamin A. Emilija Manevska / Getty Images A study linking low vitamin A levels to sleep disorders in autistic children was withdrawn this month after the authors discovered “fundamental errors” in their data. The study, published July 3 in BMC […]
It is known that pets can benefit families with children with autism, but is the relationship mutually beneficial for the pet? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 54 children will be diagnosed with autism before the age of 8. An estimated 25.4% of households that own a cat are exposed […]
Dolls are great fun for many children, but new study shows that they can be especially effective for children with the autism spectrum who have difficulty engaging in their school lessons and who have difficulty learning like their classroom peers . The study, conducted by researchers at the Yale Child Study Center and published in […]
