Spotted around the web: Self-report accuracy, ‘The Black Spectrum,’ lab animal allergies

• Autistic children can accurately fill out self-report questionnaires, a topic Spectrum has covered in depth, although those who have attention difficulties may provide less valid answers. Autism
• Dendritic spines, a key feature of neuronal connections, appear to be altered in a number of mouse models of autism. The FEBS Journal
• People with celiac disease have an increased likelihood of having autism and other conditions, such as anxiety, depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Highlighting key words while reading to preliterate autistic children may boost communication skills, whether the words are accompanied by images or not. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
• Women with a fragile X premutation may have heightened anxiety and autism traits. British Journal of Psychiatry
• Mice that model Angelman syndrome have unusually few sleep spindles — neural activity bursts seen during non-REM sleep and thought to be related to memory consolidation. Molecular Autism
• Researchers can readily induce febrile seizures in rat pups lacking the UBE3A gene, modeling a trait seen in people with Angelman syndrome. eNeuro
• Deletion or duplication of the 1q21 chromosomal region, associated with intellectual disability, autism and schizophrenia, appears to also be linked to anxiety and mood disorders. Translational Psychiatry
• Review articles in the 3 February issue of the Journal of Neuroscience tee up some of the symposia scheduled for the Society for Neuroscience meeting in November, according to the journal’s editor-in-chief. Twitter

Science and society

• Universities should invest more resources to support graduate students’ mental health, which has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Nature
• A new podcast, “The Black Spectrum,” presents individual anonymous stories from neurodiverse Black and other people of color in the United Kingdom. The Black Spectrum
• A phase 2 trial of suramin in children improved scores on several autism scales and checklists, according to PaxMedica, the company running the trial. Medscape
• Anti-Asian racism has become more common during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many Asian-American researchers feeling unsafe. Scientific American
• Many researchers who work with laboratory animals develop allergies to them. Undark

This article was originally published on Spotted around the web: Self-report accuracy, ‘The Black Spectrum,’ lab animal allergies