How does genetic research benefit people living with autism today? And why do scientists do autism research on mice?

Source: Autism Speaks
Guest Blogger: John Elder Robison, author, advocate, adult with autism and member of Autism Speaks scientific advisory board.


Those are two of the questions I discussed with researchers at this year’s IMFAR autism science conference. We’ll start with genetics, an area of study that’s often misunderstood.




The available evidence suggests that autism has both genetic and environmental components. When you study autistic minds at the cellular level, it’s possible to find many subtle differences between the brain cells and structures of people with autism and our typical counterparts. Researchers are working hard to look at those differences and why they occur. At first, scientists thought we were born a certain way, but that thinking has evolved. Now most scientists believe our genes give us a predisposition toward something but both genes and the environment shape the final result.

Adding to the complexity is that “environment” is a catch-all word for many different things, including the air we breathe, our food, our water, and even the social community where we’re parented and raised. We are truly the product of the genetic material we start with and everything we encounter from that point forward.

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