Autism

A new study reveals that autistic children exhibit unique attentional patterns in which they often return their gaze to familiar stimuli, potentially impacting their sensory processing and cognitive development.

A meta-analysis of 243 fMRI studies revealed that ADHD and autism have distinct brain activity patterns, with unique neural activations for each disorder outweighing their similarities.

The severity of autism symptoms is linked to brain overgrowth during early embryonic development, with larger brain cortical organoids correlating with more severe social and cognitive challenges in children with autism.

Children with autism and specific learning disorders have more difficulty recognizing facial emotions compared to non-diagnosed children, with higher social anxiety correlating with better emotion recognition in autism but worse recognition in learning disorders.

Mice with autism-like traits are highly susceptible to PTSD from even mild stress, which exacerbates core autistic behaviors, and identified specific brain circuit alterations responsible for this heightened sensitivity.

New research provides evidence that specific Neanderthal genetic variants contribute to autism susceptibility, highlighting an ancient genetic link between our prehistoric relatives and modern neurodevelopmental conditions.

Children with pronounced autistic traits often have lower creativity, according to new research, except those with high attention to detail, who exhibited better creativity.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder show lower physiological responses to touch but report feeling both pleasant and unpleasant touches more intensely than typically developing individuals.

A recent study found that both autistic individuals and those with ADHD use camouflaging strategies, though autistic individuals use them more frequently.

A new study reveals that autistic adults face higher rates of various medical conditions compared to non-autistic individuals, highlighting significant health disparities and complex needs throughout their lives.

Researchers at UCLA Health discovered that distinct brain connectivity patterns in six-week-old infants at high risk for autism can predict sensory and social behaviors a year later, potentially allowing for earlier and more effective interventions.

A recent eye-tracking study found that autistic children showed less attention to socially relevant cues and more to background objects during shared book reading, which correlated with their social attention in free play.

Early-life gut microbiota disturbances are associated with the development of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD, suggesting potential early detection and intervention through biomarker analysis in newborns.

Recent research reveals that the 'neural noise' often seen in autistic brains may enhance their cognitive performance in certain tasks.

Prenatal exposure to caffeine, coupled with a high-fat diet post-birth, significantly heightened autism-like behaviors in rodents. This effect was linked to alterations in gut microbiota and elevated levels of the immune molecule IL-17A, highlighting the gut-brain axis's role in neurodevelopmental...