BeaArthur wrote:
Phemto wrote:
Thanks for that. I hadn't seen those two studies. Which raises the whole question: Does having educated parents increase the likelyhood of autism, or does carrying genes associated with autism predispose someone to achieving a higher education?
I could see possible mechanisms either way. And of course, they're not mutually exclusive.
That whole higher education/autism link might end up being explained by people with more education being older when they reproduce.
I conjecture. Don't have any data to back it up, but it seems plausible.
Are you saying from the standpoint of, the older one is the more chance there is of having a non-NT child from a genetics perspective? That's interesting...that could mean a genetic component (beyond the already recognized genetic correlation, please realize I'm not saying causation)...OTOH, it could be that the more "nerdy" individuals in society have a somewhat more difficult time with socialization and therefore, marry (and have children) later due to that factor.
There are so many possibilities. I'm fascinated by all of them.
p.s. This all made me think of the movie Idocracy where the narrator said the smart people waited until their educations were done and careers established before trying to reproduce, at which time they had infertility problems due to their age and didn't pass along as many genes; whereas the average idiots had five kids by age 25.
(Or along those lines.) I don't mean disrespect or offense, the movie was a comedy and not meant to be taken seriously.