To see if abnormalities in neurotransmitter signalling also underlie autism, Miledi's team collected brain samples from six deceased autistic patients, aged eight to 39. They fused brain-cell membranes, which house neurotransmitter receptors, together with Xenopus egg membranes. As a control, they did the same thing with brain cells from patients with no history of mental disorder.
Miledi's team then doused the frog eggs in neurotransmitter chemicals, and measured the voltage generated within each egg. The neurotransmitter chemicals tell brain cells to pump charged molecules in and out the membrane, creating a voltage across the membrane. Since Xenopus eggs do not respond to the neurotransmitters, the human proteins are completely responsible for any electric current generated.

Four of six autistic brains responded to neurotransmitters chemicals less vigorously than the controls.

I'm waiting for the religious right to denounce this research as heretical. It might take them a few months to actually understand what they're reading, but they'll be along.

Don't tell Michael Savage. His theory that absent fathers cause autism and autism is not real 99% of the time.