Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 3 November.
By
4 November 2025 | 2 min read
**C****onnectivity correlates: **A new study found a relationship between whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity and autism traits in children with clinical diagnoses of autism, but it did not find a similar relationship in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Specifically, the investigators noted that the greater the connectivity between the middle frontal gyrus of the frontoparietal network and the posterior cingulate cortex of the default mode network, the more severe were children’s autism traits. The presence or absence of ADHD traits did not affect the relationship. The authors point out that func…
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 3 November.
By
4 November 2025 | 2 min read
**C****onnectivity correlates: **A new study found a relationship between whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity and autism traits in children with clinical diagnoses of autism, but it did not find a similar relationship in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Specifically, the investigators noted that the greater the connectivity between the middle frontal gyrus of the frontoparietal network and the posterior cingulate cortex of the default mode network, the more severe were children’s autism traits. The presence or absence of ADHD traits did not affect the relationship. The authors point out that functional connectivity typically decreases during childhood development. Thus, they suggest, altered maturation in this realm may be a key contributor to autism traits. Molecular Psychiatry
More autism research we spotted:
- “Transcriptional and epigenetic targets of MEF2C in human microglia contribute to cellular functions related to autism risk and age-related disease” Nature Immunology
- “Developmental CA2 perineuronal net reduction restores social memory in SHANK3 mutant mice” bioRxiv See also: “Webbing around neurons altered in autism mouse models”
- “Age-related differences in axon pruning and myelination may alter neural signaling in autism spectrum disorder” Molecular Autism
- “Captopril restores microglial homeostasis and reverses ASD-like phenotype in a model of ASD induced by exposure in utero to anti-CASPR2 IgG” Molecular Psychiatry See also: “Auto-antibodies shape brain development in myriad ways”
Restoration hardware: Microglia from neonatal mice deprived of the protein CASPR2 in utero (bottom panels) have shorter branches than microglia from neonatal control mice (top panels). The morphological change was reversed by captopril treatment (right panels).
- “Later age of autism diagnosis in children with multiple co-occurring psychiatric disorders” medRxiv
- “CRISPR-engineered deletion of POGZ alters transcription factor binding at promoters of genes involved in synaptic signaling” bioRxiv
tags: