Three studies suggest gene raises autism risk (Reuters)

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Three studies suggest gene raises autism risk

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Three U.S. teams of scientists using different research approaches said on Thursday that different flaws in a single gene raise the risk of autism.

It is the second study published this week to find new genetic causes of autism, a complex and poorly understood set of disorders.

"We hope this means that this gene really does influence risk and that is why different labs all landed on it at the same time," said Dr. Matthew State of Yale University.

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I saw this on the news. However, let's be clear causes are not exactly known for autism and Asperger's although many theories exist. I wonder though what implications this will have though.

Eh, they say flaws but I think, no, we are just the natural evolution of mankind, the next step. Improvements over the neurtypical.

Yes, a lot of people seem to forget that capacity for language is almost certainly the result of a mutation approximately 50,000 years ago, which is very recent in terms of human evolution.( Capacity for speech/complex sound-forming is older; 100-150,000 years).

Language may have occurred as an accident simultaneously with reduced connections with the body,( inhibiting/reducing body language) in certain people. And its possible to imagine that after a rocky period during which these "unfortunates" only survived because their families joined in with their creative efforts to overcome lack of body language, by making sounds with their mouths of a complexity previously unknown, it became an advantage in survival, was selected for and so most people "do" language to some extent nowadays.

For chromosome 16, the mutations were found to be mostly accidental, not inherited. Interesting is the Autism Speaks scientist talking about a treatment instead of a cure.

Study: Rare gene change linked to autism