Spectrum

Spectrum is the go-to destination for the latest news and analysis about autism research and a springboard for scientists and clinicians to forge collaborations that deepen our understanding of autism.

Action potentials

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Upcoming meeting
June
17-21
2024
Suzhou, China
Autism & Neurodevelopment Disorders – from Genetic Discoveries to Interventions
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What we are reading
“Most Popular Autism Therapy May Not Work — and May Seriously Harm Patients’ Mental Health”
By Beth Hawkins in The74
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But unless autism research becomes diverse and global at the same time, we will retain the ‘knowledge gap’ between the high-income/English-speaking nations and the rest of the world. — Petrus De Vries

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Stay current with the latest advancements in autism research.
Research video of a zebrafish larva (zoomed in on the gut) being given glucose.

On the periphery: Thinking ‘outside the brain’ offers new ideas about autism

Neuronal alterations outside the brain may help to explain a host of the condition’s characteristic traits, including sensory changes, gut problems and motor differences.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
13 April 2023 | 20 min read
Coraline with her family at home in Pennsylvania.

The promise of telehealth in autism diagnoses

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning, in which autism clinicians had to redefine best practices and expand how children are evaluated. The remote assessments they developed may help solve a persistent problem: the long wait families endure to get a diagnosis in the United States.

By Lydia Denworth
15 February 2023 | 22 min read
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Spectrum books

Chronicle of a Field Retold: Autism Science in Profile

2022
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Autism by the Numbers: Explaining its Apparent Rise

2021
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Spectrum’s guide to autism 2020

2020
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Explore more from The Transmitter

Tail of hippocampus may be hub for seizures in mice and people

This little-studied subregion, called the fasciola cinereum, could be a new surgical target for people with treatment-resistant epilepsy.

By Shaena Montanari
14 June 2024 | 4 min read

2024 Kavli Prize awarded for research on face-selective brain areas

Studies by Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Tsao revealed how the brains of humans and other primates identify faces and helped establish an understanding of brain specialization.

By Olivia Gieger
12 June 2024 | 4 min read
A photograph of Paul-Antoine Libourel

At the end of the earth with Paul-Antoine Libourel

The French researcher’s accomplishments working with chinstrap penguins in the Antarctic highlight the importance of recording sleep in the wild.

By Yves Sciama
11 June 2024 | 18 min read