Sensory processing disorders (SPD) are more prevalent in children than autism and as common as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, yet it receives far less attention partly because it’s never been recognized as a distinct disease.

Mapping the brain is emerging as the new frontier in science, and unlocking its mysteries promises to deliver fundamental new insights into human cognition and diseases, ranging from autism to depression to addiction to Alzheimer's. But the overwhelming complexity of the brain offers a significant challenge.The brain is an almost incomprehensible maze of long cells called neurons -- 100 billion of them in all -- each one making up to 10,000 connections with other neurons.

U.S. World and Weekly Report has featured an exciting new finding published by Dr. Dorothy Jones-Davis and colleagues at UCSF and the National Institute of Mental Health, another fascinating breakthrough coming from the Sherr Lab and collaborators! The study, published in the journal PLOS One, locates places in the mouse genome that are associated with autistic traits. Looking at these regions in humans, Dr.