Heritability of Autism Spectrum Disorder in a UK Population-Based Twin Sample.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Most evidence to date highlights the importance of genetic influences on the liability to autism and related traits. However, most of these findings are derived from clinically ascertained samples, possibly missing individuals with subtler manifestations, and obtained estimates may not be representative of the population.

Objectives

To establish the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors in liability to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a broader autism phenotype in a large population-based twin sample and to ascertain the genetic/environmental relationship between dimensional trait measures and categorical diagnostic constructs of ASD.

Design, setting, and participants

We used data from the population-based cohort Twins Early Developm

SUBMITTER: Colvert E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4724890 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature