There’s an article in this month’s Wired that discusses some genetic aspects of autism and autism-related syndromes. There’s been a fairly significant increase in the number of diagnosed cases of autism in the past ten years or so. It’s only been recently that we’ve begun to realize that there may be a whole spectrum of autism disorders. Some researchers and lay experts feel that some kind of environmental factor is causing the increase in autism-related diagnoses. Some feel that there’s a genetic basis.

Wired makes the point that social changes may be a factor. While that may seem obvious to the uninitiated, it’s heresy in the world of autism research.

(My thanks to Dori Smith at Backup Brain for the last couple of links.)