Research Suggests Autism Is Genetic

Autism is one of the most talked-about topics of the last few decades, and it will remain so until we understand it much better than we do today. We already know, from done-to-death research that the MMR vaccine definitely doesn't cause autism — but what does? A professor from Cambridge University shared his fascinating and surprising findings. Autism is genetic, at least in part.

Autistic Children Have Engineer Fathers More Often

Could autism have, at least in part, a genetic cause, and perhaps be a side effect of something else, like a very scientific mind? Cambridge professor Simon Baron-Cohen's research certainly points us in that direction. His team's 1997 findings showed us that autistic children have “geeky” parents much more often than the average kid.

The professor and his colleague Sally Wheelwright questioned 2,000 UK families about their professional histories. Half of those families had at least one autistic child, while the others had other conditions: Tourette's Syndrome, Down Syndrome, or language delays without autism.

The research team focused on the father's professional title for the simple reason that the large percentage of stay-at-home moms in this group of special needs children would not give an accurate picture of the mother's talents. The research team also asked about both grandfather's professions. Baron-Cohen and Wheelright found that:

• A grand total of 12.5 percent of autistic children's fathers were engineers.

• Only five percent of other dads were engineers.

• Of both maternal and paternal grandfathers of autistic children, 21.2 percent had been engineers during their working life.

• To compare, only two percent of grandfathers of non-autistic children were engineers.

• Moms of kids with autism were more likely to have engineer dads themselves, and also chose engineer husbands more often.

More Autism Research Pointing To Genetic Causes

Professor Baron-Cohen was also involved in other research that suggests that autism has a very strong genetic factor. Mathematicians were found to have a sibling with an autism spectrum condition more often than the general population, and students of mathematics and other natural and technological sciences had more autistic traits than those pursuing other degrees.

Baron-Cohen and his Dutch colleague Dr Rosa Hoekstra, who is an expert on autism, found that “autism diagnoses are more common in an IT-rich area”. We are talking, here, about areas where lots of engineers and scientists live, work, get together and start families — like Silicon Valley in California, and Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

In Eindhoven, 30 percent of all jobs are in technological sectors. Data collected from schools in the Dutch city showed that autism was much more common here; 225 per 10,000 children were autistic. That figure is compared to 84 and 57 per 10,000 in the less tech-minded Dutch cities of Haarlem and Utrecht respectively. Baron-Cohen and his colleague commented that further research is required to find out if this trend holds up more widely, but the difference really is quite striking.

This study does paint the picture that most autistic people are "tech nerds", which would be inaccurate. While more and more employers in the tech sector have started to embrace autistic employees, and some even exclusively hire autistic people, some autistic people are certainly journalists, plumbers, poets, graphic artists, and other professions you would not typically associate with autism. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for mother's of newly diagnosed autistic children to discover that they, too, are on the spectrum.

The bottom line? It is not all about fathers and other male relatives, and it certainly isn't all about computers, math, and science either. Autism does have a strong genetic link, on the other hand, something that has become increasingly clear since this particular study emerged.

You can find the link to the Graduate Parents Project website in the links section below this article.