IO9 article: "The genes behind human intelligence also made us vulnerable to autism"
[excerpt]
Quote:
"Indeed, Fragile X syndrome accounts for about 5% of autism cases, and those with the syndrome have anywhere from a 15% to 60% chance of also having autism spectrum disorder. Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty with the numbers there, but there's still enough verifiable data there for researchers to consider Fragile X syndrome the most common single-gene cause of autism that we currently know about.
And now, researchers at Yale's Kavli Institute for Neuroscience have discovered something intriguing about the NOS1 activity that is so linked to Fragile X syndrome. The specific genetic activities disrupted by the syndrome are only seen in the human brain - when the researchers looked for similar NOS1 activity in mouse brains, they couldn't find anything.
This almost certainly means that NOS1 is linked to the higher brain functions that set humans apart from other species. It also suggests that, if the disruption of NOS1 activity is indeed a crucial factor in the cognitive problems seen in Fragile X and autism, then it's the presence of those higher brain functions in the first place that makes us vulnerable."
http://io9.com/5909928/the-genes-behind-human-intelligence-also-made-us-vulnerable-to-autism
the above linked article also contains a link to the original study at the bottom of the page
_________________
"Your Aspie score: 172 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 51 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie"
Diagnosed 2010 at age 45
Asperger's and NVLD
14 May 2012, 4:14 pm
