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

Autism and post-traumatic stress disorder share many traits, but the connection between them was largely overlooked until now.

People with autism may have patterns of brain activity that are similar to those in typical people when interpreting social interactions.

My experience at the Autism-Europe International Congress — and as a parent of a child with profound autism — makes me more convinced than ever that we need to bifurcate the diagnosis of ‘autism…

For students and early-career investigators, opportunities to meet and talk with the people they are trying to help underscores why the work matters.

Early interventions for autism lack solid data. The source of this problem is murky but may stem from ongoing debates about evidence quality and entrenched conflicts of interest within the field.

Focusing on aspects of autistic experience that we all share may lead more quickly to our shared goal of improved outcomes for all autistic people.

Researchers are studying how the intense passions of autistic people shape the brain, improve well-being and enhance learning.

Cardiac activity could reveal autism's physiology and confirm a hunch many clinicians share: that people with autism experience great stress.

Many people with autism experience a triad of trauma: neglect at home, abuse from trusted adults and bullying at school or work.

"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go."

A researcher's existential crisis led to a scientific breakthrough.

In 2022, we asked our profile subjects and sources to flag rising stars in their labs or among their former students. The result is this list of 40 young researchers who are working on autism-related…

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - Previous research found repetitive and restricted behaviors (RRBs) were less predictive of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in females, indicating the...

‘Autistic burnout’ is the intense physical, mental or emotional exhaustion, often accompanied by a loss of skills, that some adults with autism experience.

Researchers are studying how the intense passions of autistic people shape the brain, improve well-being and enhance learning.

A new measure shows how greatly movement influences associations between traits and brain activity, revealing abundant false positives and false negatives.

Most autistic people receive a diagnosis in childhood, but many adults also live with the condition. Learn about the symptoms, diagnosis, and more.

A renowned researcher’s eye for detail has given her a second career and a new following.

The map features a collection of studies on autism prevalence around the world. It highlights places where information is available — and places where information is missing.

In return, they have received support and acceptance, discovery of other people with similar conditions, information sharing and even income.

Left to languish in psychiatric institutions or drugged for disorders they never had, many older adults with autism were neglected or forgotten for decades. Efforts to help them are finally underway.

The brains of autistic children show few differences from those of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or even of controls.

Molecular Psychiatry - An autism-linked missense mutation in SHANK3 reveals the modularity of Shank3 function

The movement has good intentions, but it favours the high-functioning and overlooks those who struggle with severe autism

A large, whole-genome sequencing study of families yields insights into ultra-rare genetic variants that contribute to autism.

Many girls hide their autism, sometimes evading diagnosis well into adulthood. These efforts can help women on the spectrum socially and professionally, but they can also do serious harm.

The journal’s decision comes two years after Spectrum covered backlash from researchers over the study.

Long known as the director of movement, the cerebellum may also coordinate social and cognitive abilities, including those central to autism.

Sheltering in place is especially hard for autistic children who dread changes in routine and who may have learned to repress their ways of managing stress. Here are tips to help them cope.

Not much is known about the connection between autism and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition that affects collagen. But preliminary work provides tantalizing clues.

The male sex bias in autism may in large part be a product of how common diagnostic tools measure traits in boys versus girls at a single point in time, according to a new study.

The new resource aims to aid reproducibility in imaging research.

Over the past decade, biologists have increasingly been posting their research results on preprint servers, ahead of the results' publication in traditional scientific journals.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) individually and those with co-occurring ADHD and ASD experience higher rates of total anxiety and...

‘These stories don’t show the the child who is non-verbal, who screams and growls for hours on end and attacks his or her parents on a daily basis’: the letter you always wanted to write

Expert opinions on trends and controversies in neuroscience

The 16-year-old climate activist’s radical approach to autism.

The open-source software makes it possible to overlay disparate datasets and potentially accelerate hypothesis generation.

Early interventions for autism lack solid data. The source of this problem is murky but may stem from ongoing debates about evidence quality and entrenched conflicts of interest within the field.

The fight between those who define autism as a medical condition and those who see it as a mere difference has reached vitriolic levels. Can the two sides come together to support all autistic people?

The 16-year-old climate activist’s radical approach to autism.

Autistic people have trouble making facial expressions appropriate to the circumstances.

There are a variety of suicide interventions designed to improve social connection that could be adapted for autistic people, but first the field must work to dismantle the damaging and inaccurate…

The gene-editing advances make it easier to target specific tissues in mice and detect off-target effects.

The framework, inspired by the polygenic risk score, considers the cumulative effect of neuronal connections.

The lack of people with intellectual disability in studies of autism has a profound effect on our understanding of the condition.