AI Article Synopsis
- The core diagnostic criteria for autism involve difficulties in social communication and the presence of repetitive behaviors, with evidence suggesting these aspects may be genetically distinct.
- A study involving over 51,000 participants found that systemising—a non-social trait related to autism—is heritable and has a genetic connection to autism, particularly with restricted behaviors.
- The research indicates that while systemising is linked to repetitive behaviors in autism, it shows no significant connection to social difficulties, supporting the idea that the two core domains of autism are genetically separate.
Article Abstract
The core diagnostic criteria for autism comprise two symptom domains - social and communication difficulties, and unusually repetitive and restricted behaviour, interests and activities. There is some evidence to suggest that these two domains are dissociable, though this hypothesis has not yet been tested using molecular genetics. We test this using a genome-wide association study ( = 51,564) of a non-social trait related to autism, systemising, defined as the drive to analyse and build systems. We demonstrate that systemising is heritable and genetically correlated with autism. In contrast, we do not identify significant genetic correlations between social autistic traits and systemising. Supporting this, polygenic scores for systemising are significantly and positively associated with restricted and repetitive behaviour but not with social difficulties in autistic individuals. These findings strongly suggest that the two core domains of autism are genetically dissociable, and point at how to fractionate the genetics of autism.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722082 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0558-4 | DOI Listing |
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