After analyzing almost 10,000 person in the U.K. , scientist have find a relationship between genetical risk factor for autism and news . concord to the results , genes that are associated with the development of autism spectrum disorder are also linked with better cognitive power in members of the cosmopolitan population who do not have these stipulation . The determination have been release inMolecular Psychiatry .
Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD ) is an umbrella terminal figure used to discover a number of neurodevelopmental disorders , including autism and Asperger ’s syndrome , characterise by communicating difficulties , societal deficit , repetitive behaviors and obsessive interests .
There is also asignificant overlapbetween ASD and intellectual disablement with up to75%of autistic individual receive a non - verbal IQ below 70 . However , ASD can also occur in those with normal or even superior non - verbal intelligence service , which is what enable us to solve problems using reasoning skill but little use of language . Despite these notice , very few studies have sought to investigate the genetical overlap between intelligence and ASD .
To address this gap in our noesis , scientists from theUniversity of Edinburgh , Scotland , and the Queensland Institute for Medical Research investigate nigh to 10,000 mortal raise from the cosmopolitan Scottish population . They perform both desoxyribonucleic acid analysis on the participants and also asked them to fill out a variety of tests that examine cognitive power .
The researchers found that possessing genetical risk component for ASD was positively correlated with general cognitive ability , logical computer memory and verbal intelligence . This means that non - autistic individuals who own genes link up with autism tend to perform somewhat better in cognitive tests . The researcher then extended the subject by perform the same experiments on 921 individuals who had been recruited into the Brisbane Adolescent Twin Study . Once again , they observed a relationship between genes associated with ASD and intelligence .
“ This study suggests genes for autism may in reality confer , on average , a modest intellectual reward in those who carry them , supply they are not pretend by autism , ” study writer Professor Nick Martin explained in anews release .
“ As we begin to understand how genetical stochastic variable associated with autism shock learning ability mapping , we may get down to further realize the nature of autistic intelligence service , ” lead researcher Dr. Tony - Kim Clarke said in astatement .