IMFAR 2011

Recent articles

Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Despite reasoning skills, Asperger boys struggle to focus

Teenage boys with Asperger syndrome with higher-than-average scores on tests of abstract reasoning fare worse than controls on short-term memory and ability to filter out distractions.

By Deborah Rudacille
16 May 2011 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Language gene mouse model could help test autism drugs

Mice lacking CNTNAP2, a gene linked to autism and language impairment, show behaviors and brain abnormalities that reflect those seen in people with disorder, according to new findings presented Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.

By Deborah Rudacille
16 May 2011 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Brain overgrowth may drive early symptoms of autism

Long bundles of neurons that connect key regions in the brain develop abnormally in the first year of life in children with autism, according to new findings presented Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.

By Deborah Rudacille
16 May 2011 | 5 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Budget cuts hit autism research

Cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget affect both investigators who have existing grants — which will receive one percent less than in 2010 — and those applying for funding.

By Deborah Rudacille
13 May 2011 | 2 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