Understanding Autism Through Genetics

Introduction Have you ever been driving when suddenly your car’s “check engine” warning light comes on? You take the car to the mechanic, who tells you “more than a hundred different malfunctions can trigger that light.” Autism, we now know, is a bit like that, with potentially hundreds of genetic variations leading to the warning signs of the disorder.1 Unfortunately, determining exactly which of those many possibilities is the real culprit is not as simple as hooking your car’s central computer to a diagnostic tester. Rather, in autism many culprits may be acting at once, each contributing something different to the problems that characterize the disorder. Autism is a group of disorders that are characterized by a wide range of symptoms, impairments, and disabilities. Autism: Not one disease Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a class of varied disorders typified by impairments in language development, social development, and narrow or restricted interests and/or repetitive behaviors. Most children with an ASD have normal intelligence. A minority (about 35 percent) have intellectual disability, which is defined as an IQ below 70.2 A small minority of so-called autistic savants may be capable of remarkable memory feats or other capabilities.3 The prevalence of ASDs has increased 78 percent since 2002 according to the most recent estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and now stands at 1 in 88 children.4 ASDs are nearly f...
Source: ActionBioscience - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news