I just returned from a fantastic week of reporting on autism news at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting and Cell Symposia autism satellite meeting. Check out my stories from the trip:

News stories:
Researchers unveil seven new rat models of autism
Optogenetics method moves into monkeys
Vision problems in Rett syndrome could serve as biomarker

Short conference reports:
Researchers map microRNAs in autism brains
Folate low in spinal fluid of children with autism, study says
MET variants influence connectivity in children with autism
Valproate rat model implicates adrenaline in autism
Amygdala’s links to other brain regions wane with age
Researchers debut SHANK2 mouse, SHANK3 rat
Genetic studies probe sleep hormone’s role in autism
Autism brains have noisy signals, imaging study finds
PRICKLE2 is new autism candidate gene, group says
Rapamycin reverses memory deficits in DISC1-deficient mice

Blog/opinion posts:
Different world: Most neuroscientists who study autism don’t think about the day-to-day experience of people with the disorder
Base hits: Why pharma isn’t keen on autism

Video interviews:
Matt Anderson: Turning the brain’s social circuits on and off
Kim Huber: What is the fragile X protein’s role in a neuron?
Declan Murphy: New European project aims to speed drug research
Paul Patterson: How infection affects the fetal brain