Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Discovery of molecular reset button for internal body clock could help treat different disorders

An international team of scientists has discovered what amounts to a molecular reset button for our internal body clock. Their findings reveal a potential target to treat a range of disorders, from sleep disturbances to other behavioral, cognitive, and metabolic abnormalities, commonly associated with jet lag, shift work and exposure to light at night, as well as with neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and autism.

28 Apr 2015

New study shows how parents may notice early signs of autism in their child

As co-director of the University of Alberta's Autism Research Centre, Lonnie Zwaigenbaum has devoted much of his career to understanding how to identify autism as early as possible. But despite his years of experience, Zwaigenbaum says many physicians like him would do well to seek other expert advice when working with children not yet diagnosed--that of the parents of these young patients.

27 Apr 2015

Vanderbilt biologists explore how electrochemical connections form at molecular and cellular level

Every time you make a memory, somewhere in your brain a tiny filament reaches out from one neuron and forms an electrochemical connection to a neighboring neuron.

27 Apr 2015

Researchers identify potential treatment target for fragile X carriers

Fragile X syndrome, an inherited cause of autism and intellectual disability, can have consequences even for carriers of the disorder who don't have full-blown symptoms.

25 Apr 2015

Scientists find genetic link between autism and prodigy

Researchers have uncovered the first evidence of a genetic link between prodigy and autism. The scientists found that child prodigies in their sample share some of the same genetic variations with people who have autism.

23 Apr 2015

Study: Parent training program significantly reduces disruptive behavior in autistic children

A 24 week parent training program, which provided specific techniques to manage disruptive behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder, resulted in a greater reduction in disruptive and noncompliant behavior compared to parent education, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health.

22 Apr 2015

Study finds no association between MMR vaccine and increased risk of autism

In a study that included approximately 95,000 children with older siblings, receipt of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was not associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), regardless of whether older siblings had ASD, findings that indicate no harmful association between receipt of MMR vaccine and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health.

22 Apr 2015

UVA research identifies new role of immune system in Rett syndrome

The immune system is designed to protect us from disease. But what if it was malfunctioning? Would it make a disease worse? That appears to be the case with Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, and possibly in other neurological disorders as well, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine has found.

22 Apr 2015

New CUMC study finds DNA anomalies in kids with chronic kidney disease

A significant proportion of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have unsuspected chromosomal imbalances, including DNA anomalies that have been linked to neurocognitive disorders, according to a new Columbia University Medical Center study.

21 Apr 2015

UC Irvine professor explores the link between autism and ADHD

For the better part of the last decade, a growing body of research has been revealing more and more similarities between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism.

17 Apr 2015

Zinc deficiency can activate Hedgehog signaling pathway

Zinc deficiency - long associated with numerous diseases, e.g. autism, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancers - can lead to activation of the Hedgehog signaling pathway, a biomolecular pathway that plays essential roles in developing organisms and in diseases, according to new research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

17 Apr 2015

Johns Hopkins researchers link sperm with specific 'epigenetic tags' to autism

In a small study, Johns Hopkins researchers found that DNA from the sperm of men whose children had early signs of autism shows distinct patterns of regulatory tags that could contribute to the condition. A detailed report of their findings will be published online in the International Journal of Epidemiology on April 15.

15 Apr 2015

Johns Hopkins researchers named recipients of Hartwell’s 2014 Individual Biomedical Research Award

Gul Dolen, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Eili Y. Klein, Ph.D., an assistant professor of emergency medicine, are among 12 recipients of The Hartwell Foundation’s 2014 Individual Biomedical Research Award competition, the foundation announced on April 1.

15 Apr 2015

DFG selects 10 researchers to receive 2015 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize

This year's recipients of the most important prize for early career researchers in Germany have been announced. The selection committee, appointed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has chosen ten researchers, five women and five men, to receive the 2015 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizes.

10 Apr 2015

fMRI can predict language development outcomes in ASD toddlers

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers say it may be possible to predict future language development outcomes in toddlers with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), even before they've been formally diagnosed with the condition.

10 Apr 2015

Study looks at connections between cerebral cortex and cerebellum in children with autism

In early childhood, the neurons inside children's developing brains form connections between various regions of brain "real estate." As described in a paper published last week in the journal Biological Psychiatry, cognitive neuroscientists at San Diego State University found that in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, the connections between the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum appear to be overdeveloped in sensorimotor regions of the brain.

9 Apr 2015

Scientists identify brain molecule that triggers schizophrenia-like behaviors, brain changes

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have identified a molecule in the brain that triggers schizophrenia-like behaviors, brain changes and global gene expression in an animal model. The research gives scientists new tools for someday preventing or treating psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism.

8 Apr 2015

UV researchers study neurobiological link between ASD and epilepsy

Researchers at the University of Veracruz (UV), in the west coast of Mexico, study the neurobiological link between the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and epilepsy, in order to understand the reason why the brain of an autistic child is 20-30 percent more susceptible to seizures that an infant without this condition.

6 Apr 2015

New study sheds light on linguistic characteristic of autistic children

A new study by a linguistics professor and an alumnus from The University of Texas at Austin sheds light on a well-known linguistic characteristic of autistic children — their reluctance to use pronouns — paving the way for more accurate diagnostics.

6 Apr 2015

CHLA infectious diseases specialist discusses how parents can prevent measles outbreak

Since December, there have been more than 130 confirmed cases of measles in the state of California, most of them connected to an outbreak that originated in a Southern California amusement park. Many of the infected persons were not vaccinated against the extremely contagious virus, which manifests itself through rash, fever and coughing.

6 Apr 2015