The Autism Retort Blog

Researchers are focusing on prairie voles as a new model to screen the effectiveness of drugs to treat autism. They are starting with D-cycloserine, a drug resarchers have shown enhances behavioral therapy for phobias and also promotes pair bonding among prairie voles. Giving female voles D-cycloserine, which is thought to facilitate learning and memory, can encourage them to bond with a new male more quickly than usual.

A five-minute checklist that parents can fill out in pediatrician waiting rooms may someday help in the early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a new study. The study's design also provides a model for developing a network of pediatricians to adopt such a change to their practice.

By dividing individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into four subtypes according to similarity of symptoms and reanalyzing existing genome-wide genetic data on these individuals vs. controls, researchers have identified 18 novel and highly significant genetic markers for ASD.

The Interactive Autism Network has revealed preliminary results of the first major survey on wandering and elopement among individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The wandering and elopement survey found that approximately half of parents of children with autism report that their child elopes, with the behavior peaking at age four.

A new study found that treatment-resistant epilepsy is common in idiopathic autism. Early age at the onset of seizures and delayed global development were associated with a higher frequency of resistance to antiepileptic drugs.

A comprehensive investigation of postmortem brain tissue has determined that one-third of the brain donors with autism also had epilepsy, and co-morbidity data revealed a higher than expected rate of mortality in individuals with both autism and epilepsy than for individuals with autism alone.

Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder on the autism spectrum, is marked by relatively normal development in infancy followed by a loss of loss of cognitive, social and language skills starting at 12 to 18 months of age. What hasn't been clear is why children start out developing normally, only to become progressively abnormal. New research helps unravel what's going on.

Researchers have released the world's first anatomically and genomically comprehensive human brain map, a previously unthinkable feat made possible through leading-edge technology and more than four years of rigorous studies and documentation.

Researchers have identified a new gene that predisposes people to both autism and epilepsy. The results show for the first time the role of the SYN1 gene in autism, in addition to epilepsy, and strengthen the hypothesis that a deregulation of the function of synapse because of this mutation is the cause of both diseases.

With the help of two sets of brothers with autism, scientists have identified a gene associated with autism that appears to be linked very specifically to the severity of social interaction deficits.