Limited Genetic Covariance Between Autistic Traits and Intelligence: Findings From a Longitudinal Twin Study
Limited Genetic Covariance Between Autistic Traits and Intelligence: Findings From a Longitudinal Twin Study
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DOI：
10.1002/ajmg.b.31066
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发表时间：
2010-07-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Ronald, Angelica
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hoekstra, Rosa A.;Happe, Francesca;Ronald, Angelica
智力残疾在自闭症谱系障碍患者中很常见。然而，这两种情况之间的关联强度及其与寻找自闭症的潜在（遗传）原因的相关性尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨一般人群双胞胎样本中自闭症特质与智力之间的纵向关联，并探讨这种关联的病因。研究人员收集了8,848对双胞胎在7/8岁、9岁和12岁时对自闭症特征和智力测试表现的父母评分。将样本中的表型和纵向相关性作为一个整体与最极端的5%人群中的相关性进行比较。遗传和环境的影响，自闭症特征和智商之间的重叠，并随着时间的推移，这种关系的稳定性进行了估计，使用结构方程模型。自闭症特征与智力呈适度负相关，无论是在极端得分组还是在全范围得分中。随着时间的推移，这种相关性是稳定的，主要是由评估沟通困难的自闭症特质项目解释的。遗传模型拟合表明，自闭症特征和智商受到一组共同的基因和一组共同的环境影响的影响，这些基因和环境影响在整个童年时期持续影响这些特征。自闭症特征和智商之间的遗传相关性很小。这些研究结果表明，自闭症特征的个体差异基本上与智力功能无关。这些研究结果的相关性，以未来的研究进行了讨论。(C)2010 Wiley-Liss，Inc.
Intellectual disability is common in individuals with autism spectrum conditions. However, the strength of the association between both conditions and its relevance to finding the underlying (genetic) causes of autism is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between autistic traits and intelligence in a general population twin sample and to examine the etiology of this association. Parental ratings of autistic traits and performance on intelligence tests were collected in a sample of 8,848 twin pairs when the children were 7/8, 9, and 12 years old. Phenotypic and longitudinal correlations in the sample as a whole were compared to the associations in the most extreme scoring 5% of the population. The genetic and environmental influences on the overlap between autistic traits and IQ and on the stability of this relationship over time were estimated using structural equation modeling. Autistic traits were modestly negatively correlated to intellectual ability, both in the extreme scoring groups and among the full-range scores. The correlation was stable over time and was mainly explained by autistic trait items assessing communication difficulties. Genetic model fitting showed that autistic traits and IQ were influenced by a common set of genes and a common set of environmental influences that continuously affect these traits throughout childhood. The genetic correlation between autistic traits and IQ was only modest. These findings suggest that individual differences in autistic traits are substantially genetically independent of intellectual functioning. The relevance of these findings to future studies is discussed. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.