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Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap

Language difficulties have historically been viewed as integral to autism spectrum conditions (ASC), leading molecular genetic studies to consider whether ASC and language difficulties have overlapping genetic bases. The extent of genetic, and also environmental, overlap between ASC and language is,...

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Autores principales: Taylor, Mark J., Charman, Tony, Robinson, Elise B., Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E., Happé, Francesca, Dale, Philip S., Ronald, Angelica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4419741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25088445
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32262
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author Taylor, Mark J.
Charman, Tony
Robinson, Elise B.
Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.
Happé, Francesca
Dale, Philip S.
Ronald, Angelica
author_facet Taylor, Mark J.
Charman, Tony
Robinson, Elise B.
Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.
Happé, Francesca
Dale, Philip S.
Ronald, Angelica
author_sort Taylor, Mark J.
collection PubMed
description Language difficulties have historically been viewed as integral to autism spectrum conditions (ASC), leading molecular genetic studies to consider whether ASC and language difficulties have overlapping genetic bases. The extent of genetic, and also environmental, overlap between ASC and language is, however, unclear. We hence conducted a twin study of the concurrent association between autistic traits and receptive language abilities. Internet-based language tests were completed by ~3,000 pairs of twins, while autistic traits were assessed via parent ratings. Twin model fitting explored the association between these measures in the full sample, while DeFries-Fulker analysis tested these associations at the extremes of the sample. Phenotypic associations between language ability and autistic traits were modest and negative. The degree of genetic overlap was also negative, indicating that genetic influences on autistic traits lowered language scores in the full sample (mean genetic correlation = −0.13). Genetic overlap was also low at the extremes of the sample (mean genetic correlation = 0.14), indicating that genetic influences on quantitatively defined language difficulties were largely distinct from those on extreme autistic traits. Variation in language ability and autistic traits were also associated with largely different nonshared environmental influences. Language and autistic traits are influenced by largely distinct etiological factors. This has implications for molecular genetic studies of ASC and understanding the etiology of ASC. Additionally, these findings lend support to forthcoming DSM-5 changes to ASC diagnostic criteria that will see language difficulties separated from the core ASC communication symptoms, and instead listed as a clinical specifier.
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spelling pubmed-44197412015-05-05 Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap Taylor, Mark J. Charman, Tony Robinson, Elise B. Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E. Happé, Francesca Dale, Philip S. Ronald, Angelica Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet Article Language difficulties have historically been viewed as integral to autism spectrum conditions (ASC), leading molecular genetic studies to consider whether ASC and language difficulties have overlapping genetic bases. The extent of genetic, and also environmental, overlap between ASC and language is, however, unclear. We hence conducted a twin study of the concurrent association between autistic traits and receptive language abilities. Internet-based language tests were completed by ~3,000 pairs of twins, while autistic traits were assessed via parent ratings. Twin model fitting explored the association between these measures in the full sample, while DeFries-Fulker analysis tested these associations at the extremes of the sample. Phenotypic associations between language ability and autistic traits were modest and negative. The degree of genetic overlap was also negative, indicating that genetic influences on autistic traits lowered language scores in the full sample (mean genetic correlation = −0.13). Genetic overlap was also low at the extremes of the sample (mean genetic correlation = 0.14), indicating that genetic influences on quantitatively defined language difficulties were largely distinct from those on extreme autistic traits. Variation in language ability and autistic traits were also associated with largely different nonshared environmental influences. Language and autistic traits are influenced by largely distinct etiological factors. This has implications for molecular genetic studies of ASC and understanding the etiology of ASC. Additionally, these findings lend support to forthcoming DSM-5 changes to ASC diagnostic criteria that will see language difficulties separated from the core ASC communication symptoms, and instead listed as a clinical specifier. 2014-08-02 2014-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4419741/ /pubmed/25088445 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32262 Text en © The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Taylor, Mark J.
Charman, Tony
Robinson, Elise B.
Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.
Happé, Francesca
Dale, Philip S.
Ronald, Angelica
Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title_full Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title_fullStr Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title_full_unstemmed Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title_short Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap
title_sort language and traits of autism spectrum conditions: evidence of limited phenotypic and etiological overlap
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4419741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25088445
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32262
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