Multi-generational autism studies grandfather to son?

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mike91
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05 Aug 2019, 1:22 pm

Has there been any scientific multi-generational autism studies i.e. grandfather - father - son, looking at the severity and functionality of each generation to see if they all share the similar level of functionality?

I understand the concept of BAP, but just wondered if one could expect an autistic son to be similar to his father or grandfather in level of abilities & IQ?



kraftiekortie
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05 Aug 2019, 1:26 pm

There probably have been----but it doesn't apply to me.

Both my paternal grandfather and my father were pure NT's. They were both fairly humble people, and reluctant to self-aggrandize even to the extent where I self-aggrandize. But they were both handsome and "healthy" men who grew to 5 foot 11 (grandfather) and 5 foot 10 (father). I only grew to a little less than 5 foot 5.

My mother's father was an alcoholic who was not with his wife throughout my mother's childhood. My mother visited him occasionally in the summer. He passed away 15 years before I was born.



IsabellaLinton
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05 Aug 2019, 1:36 pm

My brother, father and paternal grandfather demonstrated similar IQ, special interests, careers, and nearly identical ASD characteristics including co-morbid disorders (particularly social phobia, depression, and reclusion).



The_Walrus
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05 Aug 2019, 3:28 pm

mike91 wrote:
Has there been any scientific multi-generational autism studies i.e. grandfather - father - son, looking at the severity and functionality of each generation to see if they all share the similar level of functionality?

I understand the concept of BAP, but just wondered if one could expect an autistic son to be similar to his father or grandfather in level of abilities & IQ?

"Functioning" isn't really a meaningful term.

While I don't think there are any studies into what you specifically want to look at (after all, not many grandparents have an autism diagnosis), I strongly suspect that the answer would be "no". If I had an identical twin then there is only a 90% chance that he or she would be autistic. While this shows that autism has a strong genetic component, it's not entirely genetic and is also very unpredictable, although that could change as our knowledge improves.

Studies looking at symptom severity have found even weaker relationships. And remember that while an identical twin shares 100% of the same DNA and the same prenatal environment, a grandson inherits, on average, less than 25% of his DNA from his paternal grandfather and to my knowledge has never shared a prenatal environment (sounds flippant but might be possible in a century or so through IVF and cloning).



Cavycat
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24 Aug 2019, 8:15 pm

I'm curious. My uncle is autistic, but expresses it differently. My brothers had to get genetically tested for later generational inheritance due to me when I was in primary school (that happened before 2007).