Specific bacteria in the guts of infants and toddlers were associated with higher scores on a questionnaire measuring autism-related traits in a new study funded by the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. The research could help explain how certain microbes could be connected to autism-related traits later in life and pave the way for interventions that target the gut microbiome to improve brain development outcomes.
Read the ECHO research summary here.