Spectrum

Rebooting Becky’s brain. An electrical brain implant all but erased the obsessions that had consumed Becky Audette, years after her autism diagnosis. Could similar implants help other people with severe autism.

Questions for Will Spooren: Paving a path to autism drugs. Any new drug treatment for autism faces huge hurdles on the road the the clinic.

Large genome scan turns up new autism addresses. An analysis of blood samples from nearly 17,000 individuals with autism points to new regions of the genome likely to be involved in the disorder.

Crosstalk: Scientists blend work and life into palatable cocktails. We asked several autism researchers how they managed to mix family and fun with science into their days — and received some clever recipes.

Autistic in a pandemic: Stories from around the world. In England, a basket on the porch becomes a purgatory for deliveries deemed perilous. In Spain, families don blue ribbons to silence the ‘balcony police,’ who jeer at passersby they think may be breaking the local ‘stay home’ advisory. In India, a child puts his fears into pictures, drawing a round blob with spikes in a tableau of sickness and recovery.