Study: Gene variant linked to social problems among autistic children

By Staff Writer

A lack of social skills is one of the defining characteristics of autism. Many children who have the developmental disorder struggle to identify other people's emotions and facial expressions.

A new report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a gene that is linked to the severity of social interaction deficits. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute conducted the study, which involved two sets of brothers with autism.

The team conducted behavioral analyses of the four boys in order to measure their social skills. They also conducted tests to determine the presence of the gene variant called glutamate receptor interacting protein 1 (GRIP1), which regulates how neurons communicate with one another.

In one set of autistic brothers, the boy with two copies of GRIP1 scored lower on the social interaction assessment than his sibling with one variant. In the other set, the brother with one GRIP1 variant scored lower than the boy who did not have a single variant.

Researchers concluded that these findings may help clinicians identify the severity of an autistic child's social deficiencies, which could lead to more focused treatment.

Adolescents who have a developmental disorder may benefit from boarding schools, as many of which are designed to provide help for troubled teens.