2013: Year in review

Recent articles

Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Lab Libs 2013: A playful look back and ahead

What would you do with a carload of money? Which scientist secretly wants to be an NFL coach? Autism researchers fill in the year’s blanks … Mad Libs-style. Read and submit your own.

By Greg Boustead
19 December 2013 | 1 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Top quotes of 2013

Our favorite quotes from autism researchers in SFARI.org articles throughout the year.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
19 December 2013 | 1 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Photographs: On the spectrum

In her quest to capture people's true selves on film, the photographer Stacie Turner launched a project focusing solely on children with autism.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
19 December 2013 | 1 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Notable papers of 2013

Our annual list of the most influential papers in the autism field is culled from suggestions solicited from SFARI staff, as well as from experts in the field. Below is a selection of just some of these papers, presented in chronological order.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
19 December 2013 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Director’s column: 2013 in review

The past half-decade has seen dramatic advances in our understanding of the complexity of genomic variation in autism. Several papers published this year increase our knowledge of relevant genetic variation and indicate where in the brain these variants alter brain function to cause autism-like behaviors, says Louis F. Reichardt.

By Louis Reichardt
19 December 2013 | 8 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Top tools and techniques of 2013

In 2013, neuroscience sought clarity, whether by looking directly into a transparent brain, building neurons in the dish with greater precision and accuracy than ever before, or manipulating a mouse’s brain while it’s on the run.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
19 December 2013 | 1 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Most-viewed articles of 2013

This is a list of the ten stories that most caught our readers’ attention this year.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
19 December 2013 | 6 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Hot topics in 2013

This year saw the emergence of a few unexpected twists in autism research, and provided fresh insights into some of the usual suspects. Based on suggestions from several researchers and SFARI staff, here’s our list of the top ten topics this year.

By Amedeo Tumolillo
20 December 2012 | 10 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Mother mouse with pups.

Oxytocin shapes both mouse mom and pup behavior

Distressed pups emit distinct cries for help, which depend on oxytocin neurons in their hypothalamus.

By Claudia López Lloreda
11 September 2025 | 5 min read
Research image showing cell activity in a particular region of the mouse thalamus.

Sensory gatekeeper drives seizures, autism-like behaviors in mouse model

The new work, in mice missing the autism-linked gene CNTNAP2, suggests a mechanism to help explain the overlap between epilepsy and autism.

By Diana Kwon
11 September 2025 | 5 min listen

Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales

Breakspear and Shine find a scale-free property of brain activity that is conserved across diverse species, suggesting that a universal principle of brain activity underlies cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
10 September 2025 | 1 min read

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