Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

First report on how patterns of 5-hmC's distribution change in mouse brain during development

In 2009, the DNA alphabet expanded. Scientists discovered that an extra letter or "sixth nucleotide" was surprisingly abundant in DNA from stem cells and brain cells.

31 Oct 2011

UCLA's TIES for Families program receives $5,000 Disneyland grant

For the ninth year, the Disneyland Resort Cast Community Fund has awarded a $5,000 grant to UCLA's TIES (Training, Intervention, Education and Services) for Families program for its services and achievement. The UCLA-based program is dedicated to preparing and supporting adoptive families of children from foster care.

28 Oct 2011

The unvaccinated population contributing to the measles outbreak

As the US faces its largest outbreak of measles in 15 years - affecting 214 children so far – new research suggests too many unvaccinated U.S. children could be the reason. Experts speculate that unfounded fears regarding safety of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine leading to many children bring missed out could have led to this situation.

24 Oct 2011

SafeMinds praises UNEP's draft treaty ban on use of mercury in pharma products

SafeMinds applauds UNEP's draft treaty language which does not exempt the use of mercury in pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, from the global ban. Governmental regulators, public health officials and pharmaceutical companies have recognized that the toxicity of mercury in pharmaceutical and personal care products, to which people are directly exposed, justifies a preventive approach to minimize all exposures.

24 Oct 2011

Physical abnormality in airway linked with autism

Autism and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are currently diagnosed primarily through subjective observation of autistic behaviors. However, new research, presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), suggests that a physical abnormality in the airway may be a prominent indicator for autism and autistic spectrum disorders, making it a possible diagnostic marker for this disease.

24 Oct 2011

Critical migrating neurons in the human brain decline during infancy

José Manuel García Verdugo, full professor of Cell Biology at University of Valencia, together with a University of California research team, has participated in the discovery of new pathways of neurons migrating from lateral ventricles to the prefrontal cortex. The work done in chidren at early ages reveals a new cell pathway which may increase the amount of neurons in regions important for cognitive tasks, emotional processes and spatial perception.

22 Oct 2011

Imaging study shows slower brain growth in children with autism

Researchers at UCLA have found a possible explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers. For the first time, they've shown that the connections between brain regions that are important for language and social skills grow much more slowly in boys with autism than in non-autistic children.

21 Oct 2011

Researchers identify facial characteristics of children with autism

The face and brain develop in coordination, with each influencing the other, beginning in the embryo and continuing through adolescence. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found distinct differences between the facial characteristics of children with autism compared to those of typically developing children.

21 Oct 2011

Young docs not so keen on immunizations: Survey

A cross-sectional survey of 551 healthcare providers and noted that more recent graduates were less likely to think that vaccines were efficacious said Saad Omer, assistant professor of Emory University in Atlanta. They were also more likely to have doubts about the safety of some vaccines, Omer told reporters at the 49th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

20 Oct 2011

Women with MET genetic variant and autoantibodies more likely to have autistic children

A study by researchers at UC Davis has found that pregnant women with a particular gene variation are more likely to produce autoantibodies to the brains of their developing fetuses and that the children of these mothers are at greater risk of later being diagnosed with autism.

20 Oct 2011

Neuroscientists discover normal brain communication in people with AgCC

Like a bridge that spans a river to connect two major metropolises, the corpus callosum is the main conduit for information flowing between the left and right hemispheres of our brains. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology have found that people who are born without that link-a condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum, or AgCC-still show remarkably normal communication across the gap between the two halves of their brains.

20 Oct 2011

Common link between Type 2 diabetes and autism

A review of the genetic and biochemical abnormalities associated with autism reveals a possible link between the widely diagnosed neurological disorder and Type 2 diabetes, another medical disorder on the rise in recent decades.

20 Oct 2011

Pesticides, pollutants increase risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China

Pesticides and pollutants are related to an alarming 450 percent increase in the risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Peking University.

20 Oct 2011

IAN survey to study impact of bullying on children with ASD

Today, the Interactive Autism Network (IAN Project) launches a national survey to study the impact of bullying on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Bullying, a pervasive problem among youth, has attracted the national spotlight in recent months because of the lasting, and sometimes tragic, effects on children and teenagers across the country.

19 Oct 2011

New sequencing method can identify genetic variants linked to ASD

Geneticists at Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated a method that enables the routine amplification of all the genes on the X chromosome. The technology allows the rapid and highly accurate sequencing and identification of novel genetic variants affecting X chromosome genes.

19 Oct 2011

Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection

Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection, according to a new study appearing in the October 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

19 Oct 2011

Autism in low birth weight babies five times more common: Study

Roughly 3% of U.S. newborns fall into the low-weight category used by the researchers (2,000 grams or less). Babies of this size are typically born prematurely, though certain pregnancy complications can also cause low birth weight in full-term babies.

18 Oct 2011

NIH awards Einstein College of Medicine $5.7M for children's IDD Research Center

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University $5.7 million to fund the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC).

18 Oct 2011

Premature infants more likely to develop autism

Autism researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing have found a link between low birthweight and children diagnosed with autism, reporting premature infants are five times more likely to have autism than children born at normal weight.

18 Oct 2011

Experts from CHOP address American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting

Numerous experts from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia will be addressing their colleagues at this year's annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics on topics as varied as vaccine education, fetal surgery, sudden cardiac arrest, and sports injuries, among others.

15 Oct 2011