Autism In Children And Mental Disorders In Parents Linked

May 8, 2008

Parents of children with autism were roughly twice as likely to have been hospitalized for a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, than parents of other children, according to an analysis of Swedish birth and hospital records by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher and colleagues in the U.S. and Europe.
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Neurofeedback May Help 'Retrain' Brainwaves In Children With Autism

May 6, 2008

Playing a video game called ‘Space Race’ that requires nothing more than brainpower to make rockets on a computer screen move forward is more than just fun and games. A University of Missouri researcher is using video games to see if the brainwaves of children with autism can be ‘retrained’ to improve focus and concentration.
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Rise In Autism Is Related To Changes In Diagnosis, New Study Suggests

May 6, 2008

New research suggests that many children diagnosed with severe language disorders in the 1980s and 1990s would today be diagnosed as having autism. The research supports the theory that the rise in the number of cases of autism may be related to changes in how it is diagnosed.
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Study Links Autism Risk To Distance From Power Plants, Other Mercury Releasing Sources

May 6, 2008

How do mercury emissions affect pregnant mothers, the unborn and toddlers? Do the level of emissions impact autism rates? Does it matter whether a mercury-emitting source is 10 miles away from families versus 20 miles? Is the risk of autism greater for children who live closer to the pollution source?
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Columbia University Begins Search For Causes Of Autism International Effort Considered Groundbreaking

April 18, 2008

Columbia University researchers are involved in a multi-site consortium to gather and bank DNA samples from 2,000 autism patients and their families over the next three years.
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Notable Impact On Autism Research In Opening Year Shown By First National Autism Registry

April 18, 2008

On April 2, the Kennedy Krieger Institute will commemorate World Autism Awareness Day and National Autism Awareness Month with the one-year anniversary of the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), the first national autism registry.
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The Analysis Of Frontal Lobe Microstructure May Provide Insight Into The Biological Causes Of Autism

April 18, 2008

Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism advocacy organization along with the Allen Institute for Brain Science and one of the country's leading autism researchers will join forces on a new research grant that will examine the architecture of the autistic brain. Led by Eric Courchesne, Ph.D., Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Director of UC San Diego's Autism Center of Excellence, the grant will allow scientists to examine molecular markers of genetic activity in the brain of patients with autism, providing insight into the biological causes that underlie the disorder.
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