Federal advisory panel extends comment period, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 27 July.

By Jill Adams

28 July 2026 | 1 min read

Call for comment: On 20 July, the U.S. Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee released a working draft of its 2026-2028 strategic plan. The plan is intended to lay out priorities for autism research, services and policy. This week, the committee agreed to extend its comment period from 4 days to 30, after multiple advocacy groups requested more time to review the 336-page document. The deadline for weighing in on this draft is now 20 August 2026.

Autism research spotted this week:

“Genomic landscape of rare variants in a Chinese autism cohort and discovery of novel risk genes” Molecular Psychiatry
“Astrocytic FMRP regulates the function of spinal parvalbumin-expressing neurons in fragile X syndrome” bioRxiv

Research image of inhibitory neurons and parvalbumin-expressing neurons. — **Spinal deficit:** Mice missing the FMR1 gene, a model of fragile X syndrome (right), have fewer inhibitory neurons (pink) and even fewer parvalbumin-expressing neurons (blue) in the dorsal horn than do wildtype mice (left).

“Altered aperiodic EEG spectral power during speech perception task is associated with verbal communication in youths with autism spectrum disorder” Scientific Reports
“The Q1K integrated EEG and eye-tracking experimental test battery for open autism science” bioRxiv
“What’s behind the rise in mild autism?” The Atlantic