**Author details**

Esra Guney1\* and Elvan Iseri2

\*Address all correspondence to: dresraguney@gmail.com

1 Ankara Pediatric & Pediatric Hematology Oncology Training and Research Hospital, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Ankara, Turkey

2 Gazi University Medical Faculty, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Ankara, Turkey

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**Chapter 16**

**Discovering the Genetics of Autism**

Abdullah K. Alqallaf, Fuad M. Alkoot and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

the ASD. They can be divided into three categories as follows.

40% of the cases to genetic contributors.

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. It is characterized by social isolation, language deficits and repetitive or stereotyped behaviors. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has received a great deal of attention in the recent years not only due to the increasing rate of affected children but also because of the social and economical impact of the disorder on their families. Various studies and researches have been proposed to deal with and tackle

**1.** The basis and causes of the disorder. Different hypotheses have been proposed in an at‐ tempt to determine and discover the originality of autism. Genetic risk factors repre‐ sented by abnormal chromosomal variations and rearrangements, and non-genetic factors represented by environmental agents that have been claimed to contribute to ASD, such as exposure of children to vaccines, infection, certain foods or heavy metals.

**2.** The methodologies and techniques for characterizing and diagnosing the disorder. Sev‐ eral instrumental diagnostic protocols are commonly used in autism research such as the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observa‐ tion Schedule (ADOS). The advances in neuro-imaging techniques such as the function‐ al-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (f-MRI) have allowed scientists to model the structural and functional differences in the human brain tissues of the individuals with ASD. The clinical genetics evaluation provide reliable alternative to the interview-based protocols and screening approaches. It allows geneticists to link an estimate of approximately

**3.** The treatments and therapies of autistic patients. The available approaches for treat‐ ments include applied behavior analysis (ABA), developmental models, structured

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 Alqallaf et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

Mash'el S. Aldabbous

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/ 53797

**1. Introduction**

**Chapter 16**
