Researchers studying more than 100 families linked to autism from the Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan said they had identified at least six new genes that may provide families new hope for future treatment.

The finding, published in the July 11 issue of Science, shows that autism is not only caused by the deletion of some genes but also by turning off other genes. These genes cause disruptions in the brain's ability to form new connections in response to experience

People prefer less metal in braces, researchers say, but orthodontists say that stainless steel braces are the most effective and easiest for them to handle.

"The paradox is that the more aesthetic these dental appliances are, the more difficult they are to manage for the orthodontist," senior study author Henry Fields, professor and division chair of orthodontics at Ohio State University, said in a statement Wednesday. "But those are what people like the most

Researchers at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that people who stop drinking may develop depression.

Findings from the study appear online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Scientists have long known that moderate drinking offered some health benefits, including protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer. But now they say that people that stop drinking, even moderate drinking, run the risk of developing depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis

Researchers have identified a new type of brain-wasting disease that resembles Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a very rare and incurable degenerative brain disease that is ultimately fatal.

The U.S. National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, said in a news release Wednesday that the new type of fatal dementia has been discovered in 16 Americans since 2002, 10 of whom have already died of the condition

Diabetes and obesity can affect male fertility in a negative way, new research has found. The findings, presented Wednesday at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference here, could mean that men need to keep tabs on their weight when planning a family.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen found that men of average weight have healthier sperm in higher volumes than those outside the normal range. The research follows reports made by doctors earlier this week that male fertility begins to decline when men reach their mid-30s