Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Broad Range of Potential Factors: The Search Continues
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to serious cognitive and behavioral disorders that affect a person’s ability to communicate and socially interact. The reason behind the cause of autism is yet to be discovered while it only gets harder to narrow down the genetic factors. Individuals with ASD vary from case to case, which is why the spectrum goes from a low-end to a high-end.
In the article, “Across the Spectrum,” Anna Mikulak recapped Bourgeron’s 2017 keynote at the International Convention of Psychological Science in Vienna. Bourgeron and his interdisciplinary team are researching autism with a number of methods, such as “genetic analyses, brain imaging, mouse models, and even stem-cell applications” (Mikulak) in order to recognize the biological pathways that interact with the phenotypic differences that display ASD. Like I mentioned earlier, ASD varies across individuals; the article states, “Some may have severe cognitive impairment, while others seem to have extraordinarily high IQs; some may have no language, while others show quite advanced verbal ability” (Mikulak). Bourgeron says that autism is not just one autistic disorder, but dozens.
In a recent study, his team studied three siblings’ genes—a child with ASD, another child with Asperger’s syndrome, and another child without any complications. The siblings with a diagnose displayed mutations to genes related with the presynaptic protein neuroligin. Interesting enough, their mother had the same mutation but was protected from any disorders thanks to her second X chromosome. Although their concluding findings did not reveal the gene which causes autism, Bourgeron and his team sure did open up a potential pathway.
The article, “Maternal obesity, diabetes tied to increased autism risk in kids,” highlights another potential pathway for ASD rose from Dr. Xiaobin Wang, a public health and pediatrics researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Wang and his colleagues reviewed information on over 2,000 mother-child relationships from Boston Medical Center between 1998 and 2014 and came to a realization that “Mothers of children with ASD were likely to be older, obese and to have diabetes diagnosed before or during pregnancy” (Rapaport). Mothers with maternal obesity rose a high percentage of autism risks by 92%. Mothers with diabetes before pregnancy was three times higher the risk, while mothers with both conditions escalated four to five times more.
Although the actual reason for the increase rates are not clear, Elinor Sullivan (who was not involved in Wang’s study), a biology and neuroscience researcher at the University of Portland stated in the article, “it's possible that increased inflammation, nutrients and hormones linked to diabetes and obesity may be responsible for the added autism risk” (Rapaport). The brain is affected quite easily, as it is malleable, and there’s no doubt that these factors affect the development of the brain.
The hunt to find the cause of ASD continues each and every day from scientists to researchers in multiple fields. As you can see from mentioned studies, the difficulty arises due to the multiple potential factors in the broad spectrum. Despite this, it is always best to track ASD in early stages in order to decrease bigger problems in the individual’s future.
Works Cited
Mikulak, Anna. “Across the Spectrum.” Association for Psychological Science, 27 Apr. 2017,
Rapaport, Lisa. “Maternal Obesity, Diabetes Tied to Increased Autism Risk in Kids.” Scientific
increased-autism-risk-in-kids/.
No comments:
Post a Comment