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An open-source tool enables researchers to quickly compare brain maps plotted in different coordinate systems, such as those derived from MRI scans or microarray probes.The tool, called neuromaps, addresses a core problem that has long plagued neuroscience. As large brain-mapping repositories such as the Allen Brain Atlas and NeuroVault continue to swell in size, tools to easily collect, compare and run statistical analyses across these datasets have lagged behind. "We've been collecting huge amounts of data for a decade in neuroscience, and they all just kind of sit somewhere," says Bradley Voytek, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, who peer-reviewed the study describing neuromaps, which appeared in Nature Methods in October. "This [tool] allows you to bring them together and integrate them." The neuromaps software is freely available online and built from three main components: a repository of datasets, and tools to both transform brain maps and apply statistical methods.

A software tool uses artificial intelligence to identify presynaptic sites in images of neurons. By melding two microscopy methods and a computational tool, researchers can quickly and precisely quantify neuronal connections in individual animals, according to a new study. The technique could make it faster to map the connectomes of autism mouse models and track how mutations in autism-associated genes rewire neural circuits.A human neuron has thousands of synaptic connections, which light-based microscopy lacks the resolution to detect. Electron microscopy can resolve neuronal links in exquisite detailtheoretically down to 0.12 nanometers, a length slightly shorter than a carbon-carbon chemical bond -but the process is slow and laborious. In one study, it took about three years to section and image a single fly brain with a scanning electron microscope.

An analysis of whole-genome sequences from thousands of families -one of the largest such studies to date -has linked 163 new genes to autism. The study appeared today in Nature Genetics. The newly linked genes harbor ultra-rare inherited genetic variants -alterations to the genome that were passed from non-autistic parents to their autistic offspring. The variants are so rare that each one is found in only a single family.Most previous genome sequencing studies for autism have focused on spontaneous, or de novo, mutations -genetic alterations that appear in a child but not in either parent. Those mutations are relatively easy to detect and have implicated hundreds of genes in autism."The unique part about this paper is that they're looking at a type of genetic variant that has not been studied so much in autism," says Sagiv Shifman, professor of genetics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, who was not involved in the study. "De novo mutations are just easier to study. They are low-hanging fruits."

told Spectrum that he first flagged the papers in late 2021.Before issuing the retraction, Sabel checked each paper for "multiple" signs of problems and asked each author to respond to a questionnaire. He says it took him more than a year to investigate all of the papers by hand."Some authors were either unresponsive, unable to provide a reasonable explanation for having done so, or they volunteered to withdraw their paper without specifying the reasons why," the 2 May retraction notice states.But some of Sabel's criteria for flagging the papers -that they come from scientists affiliated with Chinese hospitals, and that the corresponding authors used private, non-academic email addresses -have come under criticism.The 13 retracted articles have collectively been cited 133 times, according to Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science. Many of the papers that cite the retracted articles share the same traits that Sabel