Vocalization

Recent articles

Hand points to letters on a board.

Still no proof for facilitated spelling methods

A systematic review into whether the “rapid prompting method” or “spelling to communicate” can help autistic people express themselves comes up empty yet again.

By Brendan Borrell
21 May 2026 | 6 min read
Composite of headshots of neuroscience prize winners from 2025.

Top neuroscience prize winners in 2025

The awards recognize lifetime achievements and new discoveries.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 4 min read

Hitting city streets to record rat behaviors: Q&A with Emily Mackevicius, Ralph Peterson

Capturing the rodents’ vocalizations and movements in the wild offers an opportunity to study naturalistic behaviors in a complex urban environment, Mackevicius and Peterson say.

By Marta Hill
19 August 2025 | 0 min watch
Conceptual image of colorful falling letters, casting shadows on a white wall.

Some minimally verbal autistic people show signs of written-language familiarity, study suggests

But researchers not involved in the work worry the findings could be used to support discredited facilitated-communication techniques.

By Calli McMurray
9 May 2024 | 7 min read
Research image of neurons.

Abundant motor proteins disrupt cries in FOXP2 mice

Knocking down the gene that codes for the proteins normalizes the vocalizations.

By Laura Dattaro, Maaisha Osman
28 July 2023 | 3 min read
Research image showing FOXP1 gene expression in female zebra finch brains.

Lacking autism-linked gene, female birds tune out favorite songs

The gene, FOXP1, influences an animal’s motivation to listen to social communication, a new study suggests.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
21 April 2023 | 5 min read
Constantina Theofanopoulou strikes a dancer's pose in her lab.

Beyond the bench: Learning new moves with dancer-scientist Constantina Theofanopoulou

Theofanopoulou shares how flamenco stepped up the pace of her social-communication research, and what’s behind the ‘no fear’ ethos in her new lab.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
13 September 2022 | 7 min read

New software flags autism rat model’s telltale squeaks

By breaking rodent vocalizations into parts, TrackUSF distinguishes rats with mutations in the SHANK3 gene from their wildtype counterparts.

By Peter Hess
29 July 2022 | 3 min read

Researchers publish new dataset on minimally verbal autistic people

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published the first repository of vocalizations from minimally verbal autistic people. Those with few or no spoken words still produce a range of phonemes, or units of sound, that may serve as developmental markers or intervention targets.

By Shelby Grebbin
18 May 2022 | 4 min read

Birdsong-related DNA sequences tied to autism-linked genes

Genes that appear to play a role in some birds' ability to learn songs are frequently mutated in autistic people.

By Laura Dattaro
6 December 2021 | 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