Director’s Message: December 2025

As we approach the end of 2025, we have been taking stock of our mission and our practices at Autism BrainNet. While our focus was originally on how brain research might help explain the causes of autism, we have expanded our scope by supporting research on the aging autistic brain. As you can read in the attached article by Dr. Blair Braden and myself, there is increasing evidence that having autism puts individuals at increased risk for both dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Currently, there is very little evidence for why this is the case. To foster research on this question, we have been reaching out to older autistic individuals to encourage them to consider brain donation.

Another recent focus has been on profound autism. Our clinical team has worked diligently on reviewing the medical records that are acquired at the time of donation to gather evidence about whether a donor would have qualified for the definition of profound autism. There is a strong suspicion that the biology that underlies profound autism may be substantially different from other forms of autism. So, it is important that we provide researchers who study donated tissue with the very best and most complete information about the characteristics of our brain donors.

This has been a very active year of brain donation and of distribution of tissue to researchers worldwide. Results are forthcoming and we hope to provide you with summaries of exciting new findings in the new year. To our donor families, we convey our sincere gratitude for the gift that will fuel countless research studies on the biology of autism.

To all our other supporters, please continue to advocate for brain donation by spreading the importance of brain research on understanding autism and improving the quality of life of the autistic community.

To All who are reading this, Best Wishes for a Wonderful Holiday Season and a Healthy and Happy 2026!