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Autism Research
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Autism Research
Article . 2021 . Peer-reviewed
License: Wiley Online Library User Agreement
Data sources: Crossref
Autism Research
Article . 2021
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Heritability of quantitative autism spectrum traits in adults: A family‐based study

Authors: Sara C. Taylor; Samantha Steeman; Brielle N. Gehringer; Holly C. Dow; Allison Langer; Eric Rawot; Leat Perez; +12 Authors

Heritability of quantitative autism spectrum traits in adults: A family‐based study

Abstract

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) comprises a multi‐dimensional set of quantitative behavioral traits expressed along a continuum in autistic and neurotypical individuals. ASD diagnosis—a dichotomous trait—is known to be highly heritable and has been used as the phenotype for most ASD genetic studies. But less is known about the heritability of autism spectrum quantitative traits, especially in adults, an important prerequisite for gene discovery. We sought to measure the heritability of many autism‐relevant quantitative traits in adults high in autism spectrum traits and their extended family members. Among adults high in autism spectrum traits (n = 158) and their extended family members (n = 245), we calculated univariate and bivariate heritability estimates for 19 autism spectrum traits across several behavioral domains. We found nearly all tested autism spectrum quantitative traits to be significantly heritable (h2 = 0.24–0.79), including overall ASD traits, restricted repetitive behaviors, broader autism phenotype traits, social anxiety, and executive functioning. The degree of shared heritability varied based on method and specificity of the assessment measure. We found high shared heritability for the self‐report measures and for most of the informant‐report measures, with little shared heritability among performance‐based cognition tasks. These findings suggest that many autism spectrum quantitative traits would be good, feasible candidates for future genetics studies, allowing for an increase in the power of autism gene discovery. Our findings suggest that the degree of shared heritability between traits depends on the assessment method (self‐report vs. informant‐report vs. performance‐based tasks), as well as trait‐specificity.Lay SummaryWe found that the scores from questionnaires and tasks measuring different types of behaviors and abilities related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were heritable (strongly influenced by gene variants passed down through a family) among autistic adults and their family members. These findings mean that these scores can be used in future studies interested in identifying specific genes and gene variants that are associated with different behaviors and abilities related with ASD.

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Keywords

Adult, Executive Function, Phenotype, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Surveys and Questionnaires, Humans, Autistic Disorder

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
12
Top 10%
Average
Top 10%
bronze