Environment

Recent articles

New catalog charts familial ties from autism to 90 other conditions

The research tool reveals associations stretching across three generations.

By Charles Q. Choi
17 October 2024 | 4 min read
Photograph of a child sitting at a laptop and performing an executive function test.

Brain imaging at the fair with Ka Ip

Does environment affect how children from diverse backgrounds perform on tests of executive function? Ip went to the Minnesota State Fair to find out.

By Angie Voyles Askham
24 September 2024 | 9 min read
A man walks a dromedary camel down an outdoor walkway.

Temperature tunes circadian timing in some desert mammals

Light has hogged all the attention in chronobiology research—but now, in camel, goat and mole rat experiments, temperature takes the lead.

By Calli McMurray
28 June 2024 | 5 min read
Illustration of a conveyor belt spilling pills over a green cliff face.

Acetaminophen use during pregnancy does not increase child’s chance of having autism, study finds

The link reported in prior studies likely reflects confounding factors, which sibling-matched controls in the new work address.

By Calli McMurray
9 April 2024 | 7 min read
A photograph of a crab

In hot water: Climate change tests limits of neuronal resilience in crabs

Warming seas disrupt the function of neurons — and could seed permanent changes in marine species, according to studies of a circuit that controls digestion in crustaceans.

By Angie Voyles Askham
12 February 2024 | 7 min read
Research image of microglia in rats.

Temperament is innate but hackable, animal studies suggest

Emotional reactivity and vulnerability to stress are largely inherited in rodents — but can be modified in early life by targeting inflammation-related cells or even just adjusting an animal’s environment.

By Holly Barker
23 January 2024 | 8 min read
A research image of a mouse brain

Immune-activation model mice escape infantile amnesia, retain early memories

Male pups born to mothers treated with immune-stimulating molecules show autism-like behaviors and, unlike wildtype animals, do not lose memories formed during early life.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
11 January 2024 | 5 min read
A line of airplanes flies across the sky.

Neuroscientists weigh carbon costs of attending annual meeting

Travel to the Society for Neuroscience conference is responsible for tens of thousands of metric tons of carbon emissions, according to a new study, but neuroscientists have yet to agree on what that should mean for the future of the in-person meeting.

By Angie Voyles Askham, Shaena Montanari
6 November 2023 | 7 min read
Black-and-white illustrated portrait of Jonathan Green.

‘Emergent and transactional’: How Jonathan Green is rethinking autism and interventions

The experienced clinician discusses writing his recent paper, and its reception in the field.

By Brady Huggett
28 August 2023 | 1 min read
Five high-school-aged students sit on a bench looking at notebooks and a laptop.

Social skills decline during adolescence for a sliver of autistic youth

Most children with the condition, however, gain communication and social abilities over time.

By Calli McMurray
24 August 2023 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

New tissue-clearing techniques let microscopes peer deeper into living brains

Washing mouse brain tissue with a blood protein or complex sugar can illuminate cells 550 micrometers into the cortex without compromising its normal physiology.

By Calli McMurray
18 October 2024 | 0 min watch
Illustration of three columns of text with certain passages underlined and circled.

This paper changed my life: ‘Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment,’ from the Fiser Lab

Fiser’s work taught me how to think about grounding computational models in biologically plausible implementations.

By Megan Peters
16 October 2024 | 5 min read
Research image of brain scans showing the density of neuronal synapses.

SYNGAP1; executive function; synaptic density

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 14 October.

By Jill Adams
15 October 2024 | 2 min read