They have proved that ASD is NOT - repeat NOT genetic.

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Nature or nurture - a false dichotomy:

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles. ... --Nurture/
http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/stu ... omy_of_the

May I ask are you on the spectrum yourself M Davis? And if so what do you believe was causal of your spectrum status? If not, what led to your interest in the determinants of ASD? I appreciate that we can be interested in things simply because they are interesting issues, though often there are personal layers to those interests too, and I am wondering how this applies to you, should you care to share that..

It has been hypothesized that there are so many causes of autism that it was even proposed that "autism" encompasses a group of "autisms."

It has been pretty well proven in twin studies that autism has a genetic origin in the broad sense (not the Mendelian sense). It is not inevitable that two autistic people will produce autistic offspring--but it much more likely to occur than what happens between two NT people.

There are also documented epigenetic causes, and environmental causes.

I don't believe a single "cause" or "gene," or whatever for autism will ever be discovered.

My ASD is idiopathic; there are others who have many family members who share the same general diagnosis.

Where am I on the spectrum? No idea now.

I used to be Asperger's with hypersensitivity to sound - and mild hypersensitivity to movement.

I remain aspie - by choice and design. Without the enforced tunnel vision - without the hypersensitivity to sound - and still with very mild hypersensitivity to sight.
Apparently my neighbour - a psych nurse - says I no longer manifest compulsive behaviours but as I was not aware of them - I cannot say.

I have no plans to stop being aspie - except in social settings. It was a hard won skill and very useful. The only difference is that it is now under conscious control - not forced upon me.

It is not possible? Tell me about it.
If you have the right model - that which is impossible (and everyone will tell you it is impossible - even to your face) is what you live. I live many "impossibles."

Do you think I would make such a fuss if it was only conjecture?
ASD is not what you thought it was - and very probably not what I think it is now.

All I have is a theory and the fact that it works.
And trying to work out what has happened after the event ... always reinterpreting it. I am now on version 7 - and I have no reason to think that my current version is correct.

As for genetics - I can trace mine to both sides of the family tree over several generations. But the condition is not the genetics - the genetics just "set me up" for the condition.

ASD is a response to the genetics, not the genetics.

On a personal level - the only advantage I can find (internal) to getting out of Aspie mode was that I could actually talk to my father. He is Aspie also.
This allowed me to bridge the gap.
Getting out of the HYPER (which is not aspie but is quite common) had a more positive effect on my life - again from the internal direction.

The skills which developed naturally (just like a baby but many years delayed) are ... interesting. I have just acquired the ability to tell stories - which I could never do before.
But the extra skills do not seem to have much impact on my life.

Being able to communicate with words is useful.
But on the whole - I do not feel any different from acquiring them.
I have not changed my personality - I am still as perverse and crotchety as ever.

Nothing is what I expected.
Choosing aspie mode as a conscious choice is NOT what others tell me I ought to desire. They want to cure me.
How can they cure me when nothing is wrong?

Sigh - why can't the world live up to my dreams?

A brief article regarding DNA/genes and expression/non-expression et al:

Epigenetics

“Learning itself consists of nothing more than switching genes on and off.”

Matt Ridley

Out of our 30,000 genes, only two percent of DNA codes for proteins. Until very recently, much of our DNA was considered to be what researchers call junk DNA. These genes were considered to be the byproduct of millions of years of evolution – genes were still inherited but were no longer used. Recently, however, scientists have discovered that some of this junk DNA actually switches on RNA that interacts with other genes.

The field of research of these phenomena is epigenetics. Epigenetics is the science of turning genes on- and-off with nutrients and other chemicals, resulting in changes of expression of those genes. The process of suppressing and enhancing genes is called methylation, a chemical process that, among other things, aids in the transcription of DNA to RNA and is believed to defend the genome against parasitic genetic elements called transposons.

Transposons are spans of DNA that – through a process called transposition – can actually move to different positions within the genome of a cell.

Transposition was first observed by researcher Barbara McClintock; this discovery earned her a Nobel Prize in 1983. As a result of her work, geneticists now know that this process can be activated by changes in diet, drugs, and exposure to toxins, and can permanently change a person’s DNA.

More fascinating is the finding that these mutations may be inherited by children. Environmental toxins have been shown to alter the activity of genes through at least four generations after exposure. For example, women who smoke while pregnant double the risk of asthma in their grandchildren.

For this reason, no two brains are alike, including those of identical twins. It is thought that about 40 percent of our genes can be modified epigenetically. Although identical twins share the same DNA, their epigenetic material can be different. Moreover, the older the twins become, the more discrepancies will occur in their DNA. Fifty-year-old twins have four times as many differentially expressed genes than three-year-old twins.

Even more interesting is the discovery that genes are regulated by maternal care. Thus far, at least nine hundred genes can be altered by maternal care. For example, the presence of a variation in the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAO-A) combined with maltreatment predicts antisocial behavior.

In mid-2009, researcher Moshe Szyf at McGill University reported that commonly-used pharmaceutical drugs can cause such persistent epigenetic changes. Szyf and his co-author Antonei Csoka posit that drug-induced diseases, such as tardive dyskinesia and drug-induced lupus, are epigenetic in nature. (More about Lupus below.) They also propose that epigenetic changes from pharmaceuticals may be involved in heart disease, obesity, diabetes, infertility and sexual dysfunctions, as well as neurological and cognitive disorders.

Smoking can cause changes in gene function. As stated earlier, there is compelling evidence that prenatal smoking increases the incidence and severity of ADHD. The risk of a severe type of ADHD greatly increases in children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and who also have variants of one or two genes associated with ADHD – one on chromosome 11 and the second on chromosome 5. Interestingly, even children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy who didn't fit all of the criteria for ADHD had more symptoms of the disorder. This was true if they had been exposed to cigarette use in utero or had genetic variations related to risk.

This baffles me.

When med students lack empathy, it's assumed to be burnout, and not an innate defect: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/he ... 38083.html

People who are isolated often develop striking neuroses: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2015 ... onfinement

Early isolation measurably disrupts brain development: http://scienceline.org/2014/06/how-negl ... the-brain/

Lower hemispherical interconnectivity is assumed to be environmental and not genetic when it's a gender difference: http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... -two-sexes

There's also low homogeneity on the spectrum:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/01/ ... idualized/

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/he ... 65331.html

Saying that it was genetic always seemed like premature closure to me.

Dr. Mark Hyman made his hypothesis on autism
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/12/09/brea ... of-autism/

Researchers are still on the hunt to find the gene that causes autism but haven't yet; you can go from generation down and not find a single relative who has speech delay or anything but also find other families who do. I know one guy who's a little slow but his brother is autistic and if the parents had yet another kid that child would likely be even more autistic.

Maybe it really is nature's way of stopping overpopulation I'm not sure. I would think nature would a little nicer and sterilize people instead.

I am a twin.

I already told y'all in January of 2014 what causes ASD (intestinal dysbiosis) and how to effectively treat it via diet, cleanses, supplements, & most importantly: probiotics.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

There are other things that are genetic that twins don't always share, and that doesn't make those things suddenly not genetic.

My family is all over the spectrum, some higher functioning that others, but all definitely "weird." And we can trace this back to the 1800's. So even if it's not genetic for some people, it's definitely genetic for us, therefore the statement "ASD is not genetic" is inherently false. It would be better to say "ASD may not always be genetic."
And 77% is pretty high.

More likely it is a complex combination of genetic, congenital, environmental, etc factors that all raise or lower the risk for developing autism.

But hey, maybe it's just an on/off switch?