Motor skills

Recent articles

Child playing with blocks.

Structure of striatum varies by sex in autistic children

The changes could reflect different developmental trajectories between boys and girls with autism, a new study suggests.

By Holly Barker
27 February 2025 | 4 min read

Karen Adolph explains how we develop our ability to move through the world

How do babies' bodies and their environment teach them to move—and how can robots benefit from these insights?

By Paul Middlebrooks
25 October 2024 | 89 min listen
Photograph of Eugenia Chiappe jumping inside a glass hallway.

Decoding flies’ motor control with acrobat-scientist Eugenia Chiappe

The tiny performers steal the show in Chiappe’s sensorimotor-integration lab in Lisbon, Portugal.

By Elissa Welle
7 May 2024 | 6 min read
Multiple exposure of Rujuta Wilson facing the camera, and walking along her gait mat.

A new look at walking in early childhood: Q&A with Rujuta Wilson

Quantifying toddlers’ gaits promises to improve autism diagnosis and intervention.

By Charles Q. Choi
14 March 2024 | 6 min read
A child uses a tablet device

New tablet-based tools to spot autism draw excitement — and questions

Handheld devices promise to bring autism detection home, but many researchers urge caution.

By Charles Q. Choi
4 January 2024 | 8 min read
Three groups of people meet and mix at a crossroads.

Year in Review: Spectrum’s best in 2023

Here are five must-reads from our coverage of autism research over the past 12 months.

28 December 2023 | 4 min read
A colorful silhouette of a hand.

Glow-in-the-dark labels accelerate AI-assisted animal motion tracking

The labeling technique trains machine-learning algorithms with larger datasets and less effort than ever before.

By Celia Ford
13 November 2023 | 5 min read
Research image of neurons.

Abundant motor proteins disrupt cries in FOXP2 mice

Knocking down the gene that codes for the proteins normalizes the vocalizations.

By Laura Dattaro, Maaisha Osman
28 July 2023 | 3 min read

Spotted around the web: Synthetic embryos; Angelman gene therapy

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 26 June.

By Jill Adams, Calli McMurray
30 June 2023 | 3 min read
Illustration of hybrid objects: part light bulb, part lab vial, some in blue and some in red to signify null and replicated results.

Null and Noteworthy: Registered reports; motor measurements; viral DNA

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, Spectrum talks with a Nature editor about the journal’s move to publish more null results.

By Laura Dattaro
16 March 2023 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

By Claudia López Lloreda
27 June 2025 | 9 min listen

Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion

The issue with the supplementary figures likely does not change the conclusions of the paper, according to an outside expert.

By Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read

Building a climate neuroscience subfield: Q&A with Angie Michaiel

Michaiel, a program officer at the Kavli Foundation, shares what it took to cultivate research on the relationship between climate change and the nervous system.

By Calli McMurray
26 June 2025 | 5 min read