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Review
. 2021 Dec;51(12):4321-4332.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04685-z.

Genetic Advances in Autism

Anita Thapar  1 , Michael Rutter  2
Affiliations
Review

Genetic Advances in Autism

Anita Thapar et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

In the last 40 years, there has been a huge increase in autism genetics research and a rapidly growing number of discoveries. We now know autism is one of the most highly heritable disorders with negligible shared environmental contributions. Recent discoveries also show that rare variants of large effect size as well as small effect common gene variants all contribute to autism risk. These discoveries challenge traditional diagnostic boundaries and highlight huge heterogeneity in autism. In this review, we consider some of the key findings that are shaping current understanding of autism and what these discoveries mean for clinicians.

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