On the Heritability of Asperger's

Post Reply New Topic

Here's an example to make the epigenetic phenomenon clearer: suppose that one switch for particular genes to turn on is a certain level of electromagnetic exposure in the first week after conception.

Although this example is one that I just made up, there may be discoveries in the future that do find some connection to factors in Western homes that we regard as commonplace, normal and harmless.

On a side note, I once heard a podcast by Dr. Fred Volker from Yale and I can't remember exactly the way he phrased it but the gist of it was, that a possible theory for girls being diagnosed less frequently than boys is that society finds some of the more mild autistic behaviors more acceptable in girls ( Instead of saying she doesn't have friends, they may say she's "shy", etc. ). Where those behaviors stand out more in boys. He went on to say that girls usually have to be more profoundly affected to end up actually getting diagnosed and a lot of mild cases go totally undiagnosed in girls but not as much in boys. It's only a theory but it kind of makes sense to me because I was called painfully shy as a kid, but I really think it was ASD all along. I believe in the heredity factor because we have several cases within my family all on my side.

What are these "23 X chromosomes"? Most people have either one X chromosome (males) or two (females). A small number of people may have one or two more.

Think it is very heritable. Did not realize how inside the spectrum I was until I had a NT daughter. Son is Aspie. I was considered 'shy and quirky.' I remember buying Teen magazines to learn how to act like a 'girl.' Also think nephew is impacted, brother's son, so not a clean X/Y thing.

ASD is partly genetic and partly environmental. You can check this with twin studies.

* Identical twins (same genome, same intra-uterine environment) have around 77% co-morbidity.
* Non-identical twins (different genome, same intra-uterine environment) have around 31% co-morbidity.
* Siblings (different genome, different intra-uterine environment) have around 20% co-morbidity.

Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_chung_a ... t_know_yet

It's clear that there are a range of factors, genetic and environmental, at play here.

There are a great many genes that appear to have a role in ASD. It seems likely to me that they all these genes are related. Perhaps they code for different aspects of a common structure or pathway.

ASD is more common in males than females. To my knowledge it remains a mystery exactly why this should be. It's not a simple genetic switch on the Y chromosome.

Quite so.

The big game changer though is epigenetics: we now know that gene expression for many characteristics can be turned on and off by interactive factors both pre and postnatally. In terms of ASD, we don't yet know WHAT turns them on and off. YET.

I think my father may be an aspie, and I have two aspie daughters - I'm female. So just an anecdote to contradict yours, fwiw.

I didn't know my parents well, but they were diagnosed as schizophrenic, and my mother might have been actually bipolar. I turned out bipolar/AS. I'm wondering where the AS came from, one of my cousins has an autistic daughter. It's interesting that an ASD popped up in females twice in my family and the males seem unaffected.

My father is as NT as an NT can be.My son is 8 and totally an NT(socialable, athletic, and popular amongst the boys at his school.)...No one else in my family has any aspie traits either.

I have relatives that are autistic - it's on my mother's side of the family, so no Y chromosome involvement there.