Autistic individuals have a common gene

By Staff Writer

The latest issue of Science Translational Medicine reveals that people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a common genetic variant in their brain.

The "disconnect" between the frontal lobe and other areas of the brain is called the CNTNAP2 gene, which is also associated with a heightened risk of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia and other language difficulties. In the study published by the journal, researchers performed MRI brain scans on 32 children who had the gene variant.

Half of those tested had an ASD, while the others were developing normally. The children were given a language learning task while the MRIs were taken, and the scans showed that the frontal lobe was "over-connected" to itself rather than connected in a normal fashion with the rest of the brain.

One of the researchers said that over-activity in one portion of the brain is why many autistic kids have focused interests in one particular area. He said that the CNTNAP2 gene helps "wire" the brain, and a better understanding of its function may help develop new forms of early interventions for ASD treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that an average of one in 110 children in the U.S. have an ASD.