Kennedy Krieger Institute announces the results of largest ever twin study of ASDs

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Oct 6 2009www.kennedykrieger.org

Kennedy Krieger Institute announced today new study results from the largest ever twin study that confirm the role genetics plays in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but also suggest that environmental factors play a role. Published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the study examined concordance rates between identical and fraternal twins, or the likelihood that if one twin has a certain genetic characteristic, the other twin will possess the same characteristic. Utilizing data obtained from the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) Project (http://www.ianproject.org/), the largest pool of autism data in the world, the study builds upon nationwide research contributions made by the IAN Project.

By registering with the IAN Project, individuals affected by ASDs and their families provide valuable data to researchers in a secure online setting from the comfort of their home or office. Furthermore, the IAN Project connects individuals with ASDs to researchers by matching them with local and national research studies for which they qualify in order to speed recruitment. The online autism registry was specially designed to lead researchers to study twin sets, as twin studies can determine possible genetic and environmental contributions to autism, which is widely thought to be the neuro-psychiatric disorder most influenced by genetics.

"Within just two years of launch the IAN Project has collected the largest group of autism twin sets in the world, which is a tremendous step forward for autism research," said Dr. Paul Law, Director of the Interactive Autism Network Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and lead author of the study. "Twin studies are a leading contributor to our understanding of autism, and the findings from this particular study show us that both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the disorder."

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www.kennedykrieger.org

Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Condition News

Tags: Autism, Brain, Cancer, Developmental Disorder, Diabetes, Education, Genetic, Genetics, Medicine, Pediatrics, Research, Twins

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Plastic the Cause of Autism Rise

BARRY MORSE says:

October 6, 2009 at 2:45 PM

Please follow this hypothesis: Plastic is the cause of the rapid rise in autism. The human brain works primarily by electrical energy. Plastic is an excellent insulator. Plastics photo-degrade; they get smaller but remain as plastic. During the time of fetal neural development, at the moment that the nerves should make connection, they are blocked from doing so by a piece of plastic. I believe the autistic mind produces the same amount of electrical energy and that energy has fewer areas of diffusion. This is evidenced by the heightening the various senses experienced by the autistic individual. Note the rapid rise in autism in the last twenty years and consider the time it would take for the plastics to infiltrate our ecosystem or the direct ingestion of photo-degraded liquid by pregnant women.

I am aware of how much is said about the effects of plastic but I have never heard of it in the above context; that the plastic itself is acting as insulating particles in the electrically based environment of a developing fetus’s brain resulting in neural dysfunction…as if there was a small piece of plastic blocking the neurons from connecting.

The easiest way to see this is to take a plastic bottle of drinking water and freeze it. Let it thaw and sit. Turn it upside down, turn it into the light and see the shiny plastic particles descend in the water that you are about to drink. These larger pieces will be filtered out, but what about the particles from this source and the rest of the environment?

I believe that this hypothesis bears investigation.

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