Autism News & Features

Parents of kids with autism should wait for more data before trying to treat them with medical marijuana, warned the lead researcher on the study.

In the study, young children whose normal development started to slip behind that of other kids appeared to be more likely to be later diagnosed with autism.

Two new studies focused on vasopressin, a hormone that has been implicated in the brain's ability to manage social behavior.

The gut-brain axis is a link that's getting more attention, said the study’s lead author, Ruth Ann Luna, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

All the children in the study had severe digestive issues, so once they were more comfortable perhaps they were better able to focus and learn. Healthier microorganisms in the gut also may send chemicals to the brain that help children learn and make connections.

Studying kids who have varying social and emotional processing skills may help identify the types of social situations that are more challenging for children with autism, the researchers said.

The study highlights the promise of digital technology in supporting face-to-face therapies for autism, experts said.

The study corroborates and builds on previous work, but it also suggests that not all children who are exposed to the same pesticides will go on to develop autism, one expert noted.

Doctors have known for decades that a small number of young children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder seem to outgrow it. The vast majority continue to face challenges and need support, said lead researcher Dr. Lisa Shulman.

Researchers found that kids with autism spectrum disorder were more than twice as likely to have serious problems getting quality sleep as kids without autism symptoms.

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.

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.

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