2012 News Stories

In a move likely to renew a longstanding ethical controversy, geneticists are quietly making plans to study the DNA of Adam Lanza, 20, who killed 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Conn.

Michael Platt’s latest study describes the precise firing patterns of neurons when a monkey gets a juice reward and when it gives juice to another monkey.

Doctors have known for many years that patients with fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, are often also diagnosed with autism. But little has been known about how the two diagnoses are related.

Scott Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, described two broad theories to explain prosocial behavior in a story about the roots of empathy.

“If you look at a lot of disease studiesa lot of the genetic variation that’s associated with disease risk [seems to be] more likely to involve gene regulation, at least for complex diseases such as diabetes,” says the IGSP’s Tim Reddy.