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Illustration by Laurène Boglio
Illustration by Laurène Boglio

Community Newsletter: Neuroimaging study size; fragile X RNA

This week on social media, researchers discussed sample size in neuroimaging studies and the potential of antisense oligonucleotides to restore the protein lost in fragile X syndrome.

By Michael Fergenson
9 July 2023 | 4 min read

Sneha Shah and Jonathan Watts, both of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, shared their team’s paper, “Antisense oligonucleotide rescue of CGG expansion–dependent FMR1 mis-splicing in fragile X syndrome restores FMRP,” published in PNAS 26 June.

Abdel Abdellaoui of Amsterdam University Medical Centers linked to his team’s paper, “Replicable brain–phenotype associations require large-scale neuroimaging data,” published in Nature Human Behaviour 26 June. Spectrum covered similar work in 2022.

Jeff Browndyke of Duke University, Colin Hawco of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Nico Dosenbach of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis replied to Abdellaoui.

Gemma Williams of the University of Brighton, Keren MacLennan of Durham University and Catherine Manning of the University of Reading linked to their editorial, “Sensory-inclusive spaces for autistic people: We need to build the evidence base,” published in Autism 3 July.

Jonathan Henninger of Carnegie Mellon University linked to his team’s study, “Transcription factors interact with RNA to regulate genes,” published in Molecular Cell 3 July.

Jungsu Kim of Indiana University commented on the study.

Guillaume Cabanac, creator of the Problematic Paper Screener, flagged more than 47 papers containing tortured phrases, questionable references and other anomalies.

Mark Adams of the University of Edinburgh linked to his team’s study, “Polygenic risk prediction: Why and when out-of-sample prediction R2 can exceed SNP-based heritability,” published in the American Journal of Human Genetics 27 June.

Clinton Canal of Mercer University commented on “Psychedelics give mice second chance to learn social rewards,” published on Spectrum 23 June.

That’s it for this week’s Community Newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you saw in the autism research sphere, feel free to send an email to [email protected].

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