Autism

The Autism topic includes research on the causes, diagnosis, services, and therapies for autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), a group of neurological and developmental disorders that affect how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. The topic also includes behavioral research related to autism.

The exact cause of autism is not entirely known, although genetics play an important role. ASDs include a variety of medical autism diagnoses, which vary in the severity of the individual symptoms and include autistic disorder (sometimes called classical autism), Asperger's syndrome, and a general diagnostic category called Pervasive Developmental Disorders.