MentalHealthDaily

Autism Polygenic Scores Linked to Lower Neurite Density

by GLOOM

Editorial card showing diffusion-MRI cortical microstructure overlaid on a polygenic-score schematic, illustrating the association between autism PGS and reduced neurite density.

A 2025 paper by Gu et al. in Molecular Psychiatry — the largest study of its kind — finds that higher common-variant genetic risk for autism predicts lower cortical neurite density in 31,748 UK Biobank adults and 4,928 ABCD children.1 The effect is small in absolute terms but replicates across cohorts and methods. Research Highlights …

Maternal Health and Autism Risk: Most Links Are Genetic, Not Prenatal

by GLOOM

Stylized illustration of a multi-generation family tree branching into cousin pairs, representing the 3-generation registry design used to separate inherited from in-utero genetic effects on autism risk.

For two decades, headlines have linked autism to maternal obesity, depression, anxiety, gestational diabetes, infection, autoimmune disease, and antidepressant use. The studies behind those headlines are well-replicated registry associations. A new design from the Aarhus University iPSYCH group offers the most careful answer yet to what they mean for an individual pregnancy. Most “maternal X …