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Recent articles

An abstract illustration of boxes connected by lines

Name this network: Addressing huge inconsistencies across studies

Entrenched practices have stymied efforts to build a universal taxonomy of functional brain networks. But a new tool to standardize brain-imaging findings could bring us a step closer.

By Lucina Q. Uddin
3 January 2024 | 5 min read
Brain scans displaying activity in areas linked with social behavior.

People’s perceptions of ‘social’ animations don’t always square with researchers’ labels

The finding calls into question differences between autistic and non-autistic people on a decades-old theory-of-mind test involving interacting geometric shapes.

By Charles Q. Choi
22 February 2023 | 6 min read
a grid of 9 brain maps showing activity in different areas of the brain

Brain networks diverge in autism by toddlerhood

By as early as age 2, autistic children appear to have a smaller salience network and a larger default mode network, among other differences, than children without the condition.

By Laura Dattaro
8 June 2022 | 4 min read
Baby getting an MRI scan

Imaging study casts doubt on cerebellum’s role in autism during infancy

Connections between the cerebellum and brain networks do not seem to contribute substantially to the emergence of autism traits.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
13 January 2021 | 3 min read
Brain images showing differences in signaling in autistic and normal brains.

Brain signal imbalance tracks with sex and with camouflaging autism traits

Autistic men show a greater imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory signaling in the brain than autistic women do, which could explain sex differences in ‘camouflaging.’

By Peter Hess
17 September 2020 | 5 min read
Collage illustration showing Lucina Uddin portrait with eye movements and brain images

Rethinking ‘noise’ in autism research

Lucina Uddin says researchers should be cautious when analyzing their findings, because 'noisy' data may actually hold important information about brain functioning.

By Jonathan Moens
11 August 2020 | 7 min read
three teens chatting

Brain responses to social stimuli may vary by sex in autism

Autistic girls’ brains respond more strongly to social stimuli than do autistic boys’.

By Laura Dattaro
29 June 2020 | 5 min read
Two sides of a 3D human brain showing different areas highlighted in various colors

Brains of autistic people show unusual left-right symmetry

The hemispheres in autistic people’s brains are more symmetrical than those of their typical peers, but it is unclear what this difference means.

By Peter Hess
4 December 2019 | 5 min read
overlapping network of connections in the brain

The connectivity theory of autism, explained

A growing body of evidence suggests that autism involves atypical communication between brain regions, but how and where in the brain this plays out is unclear.

By Rachel Zamzow
1 May 2019 | 4 min read

Large set of brain scans reveals no telltale signs of autism

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

By Nicholette Zeliadt
21 March 2019 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of inputs into a single neuron in the mouse visual cortex

‘Unbelievably beautiful’ evidence extends Nobel Prize-winning model of vision

Orientation tuning—the ability to distinguish a horizontal line from a vertical one or something in between—originates in the visual cortex, according to new mouse synapse imaging experiments.

By Claudia López Lloreda
29 May 2026 | 5 min read
Illustration of people connecting basic science.

Bringing basic biology back to INSAR

As the International Society for Autism Research has grown over the past two decades, basic science has become less central, Christine Wu Nordahl says. This year, she and other meeting organizers aimed to change that.

By Diana Kwon
28 May 2026 | 6 min read
Illustration of scale balancing Petri dish and test tubes.

Every neuroscience lab needs an ethicist

The ethics issues that arise in neuroscience research are usually novel, unresolved and understudied. Embedding ethicists in labs helps scientists navigate these challenges and develop strategies in real time to prevent harm.

By Timothy E. Brown
27 May 2026 | 5 min read