Autism News & Features

A federal study reported last week that one in 40 children have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and a second study that was published online Dec. 3 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics arrived at the same conclusion. Previously, it was estimated that one in 59 children have autism.

A new U.S. government study has found a huge jump in the estimate of how many children have autism.

Children who have autism or other developmental delays have a greater risk of being overweight or obese by age 5, a study has found.

Researchers say that we now know of 102 genes that are associated with autism.

In the study, this higher-functioning subgroup was more than four times as likely to suffer from depression, compared to people without autism.

Women who had high exposure to the long-banned pesticide DDT appear to have a higher chance of having a child with autism, according to new research.

Children born to women who had a Tdap vaccination during pregnancy had no higher risk of autism than kids whose mothers were not vaccinated, a new study finds.

Google Glass Aid Kids With Autism Relate to Others By Dennis ThompsonHealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Aug. 2, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Donji Cullenbine's young son, Alex, has autism, but when he put on a pair of Google Glass smartglasses they helped him recognize the emotions of others through their facial expressions."Within two, maybe three weeks, I caught him flicking a glance at me," said Cullenbine. "It was stunning because it was spontaneous. I had nothing to do with it. And then there were more. I thought this is a change. This is different. And he kept doing it,

Brain Scans Yield More Clues to Autism By Amy NortonHealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, July 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Children with autism show abnormalities in a deep brain circuit that typically makes socializing enjoyable, a new study finds.Using MRI brain scans, researchers found that kids with autism showed differences in the structure and function of a brain circuit called the mesolimbic reward pathway.That circuit, located deep within the brain, helps you take pleasure in social interaction -- something that people with autism struggle with, the study authors explained.Experts said the findings, published July 17 in the journal Brain,

Researchers Probe Autism's Origins in the Brain By Robert Preidt                  HealthDay Reporter         THURSDAY, July 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The underpinnings of autism may lie in an unexpected part of the brain, a small study suggests.        Scientists conducted brain scans on 20 boys with autism and 18 boys without the neurodevelopmental disorder. The scans showed that boys with autism had a significantly flatter surface on the right side of their cerebellum. That side happens to be involved in language processing.  

After the researchers controlled the data to account for other factors that might link these conditions, such as education, income and location, the odds that someone with an ASD would have a food allergy were more than twice that of someone without an ASD

Using lasers, the researchers sampled these layers and were able to reconstruct past exposures in a process similar to using growth rings on a tree to determine the tree's growth history.

Girls with autism, in particular, have different social behaviors that could mask their disorder, the researchers found.

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More than two-thirds of adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed, and a new survey identifies some of the most significant barriers -- and benefits -- to work.

The new estimate means that autism rates have more than doubled since 2000, the researchers reported.

The researchers were surprised to find that the number of neurons in one part of the amygdala increased by more than 30 percent from childhood to adulthood in individuals who had developed normally.

Kids were less likely to be diagnosed with autism if their moms took supplements before pregnancy and while they were expecting, according to a study of just over 45,000 Israeli children.

An estimated 2.41 percent of children in the United States have autism spectrum disorder, according to a new analysis of data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

But researchers can't prove a cause-and-effect connection

When oldest female child has the disorder, risk is raised for younger siblings, especially boys: study

Re-analysis of stats from earlier study shows new estimate of DNA impact

Study suggests genetic variations in the DNA of mitochondria may up risk for developmental disorder

Researchers seek to boost social abilities in small study

But absolute risk is low, researcher says