When Zachary Williams joined the Autistic Researchers Committee of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), he that knew one of the group's priorities would be to promote participatory research -an approach in which scientists work with autistic people and other members of the autism community to design, conduct and interpret the results of their experiments.But that priority really started to take shape when the committee itself solicited input. "One of the questions we got was, 'I love this idea of participatory research, but how do I go about finding people to be my community partners?'" says Williams, a medical and doctoral student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.[posts], who is going to be the group of researchers who makes these, or what this will turn into.And a lot of that really just depends on community usage. S: Are you getting good feedback so far? ZW: Yeah! The funniest thing was that two or three people who didn't know that I made this sent it to me, like, "Zack, look at this; it seems like it's right up your alley." And -yes, it is!
Calling all autism researchers: How are you approaching upcoming conferences and meetings, such as the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting this November, which will be held both virtually and in person? Are you eager to get back to in-person gatherings? Are face-to-face encounters critical to advancing your work? Or are you hesitant to travel? Enjoying the convenience of conferencing from home? Waiting to decide? Spectrum is working on a story about scientists' conference plans through the end of this year. The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered how scientists share their work -with some effects that may reverberate for years to come. Please help us report this story by taking a short survey about your plans and decision-making process.
An intranasal form of the hormone oxytocin is no more effective than placebo at increasing social behaviors in autistic children, according to what may be the largest clinical trial of the treatment to date. The results were published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.Because of oxytocin's role in strengthening social bonds, researchers have considered it as a candidate treatment for autism for more than a decade. Small trials hinted that the hormone could improve social skills in some autistic people, such as those with low blood levels of oxytocin or infants with Prader-Willi syndrome, an autism-related condition. But the new results, based on 250 autistic children, suggest that "oxytocin, at least in its current form, is probably not helpful for the majority of kids with autism," says Evdokia Anagnostou, professor of pediatrics at University of Toronto in Canada, who was not involved in the new work.
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