**Acknowledgements**

The author would like to thank Edith Monroy for reviewing the language of the manuscript.

#### **Author details**

Miguel Ángel Romero-Munguía

Address all correspondence to: romero\_munguia@yahoo.com

Outpatient Service, "Dr. Samuel Ramírez Moreno" Psychiatric Hospital, Health Secretariat, Mexico

### **References**

per se [93]. However, during the World Memory Championships the competitors currently use mnemonic methods, not innate features as synaesthesia; one of these mnemonic meth‐ ods is "the method of loci" [94], which was used by S, who when he listened to a list of ob‐ jects to memorize he would distribute them along a street in his home town or the Gorky Street visualized in his mind [1]. "The method of loci" is used by Buenos Aires waiters, who

Lorayne has pointed out that it is difficult to remember the abstract, he therefore recom‐ mends replacing it by tangible objects, for example, 7 might be represented by a flag, where‐ as 8 by an hourglass [10], while S used a man with a mustache to represent 7 and a very stout woman to represent 8 [1]; O'Brien said that 07 may become James Bond [11]. Finally, it is very difficult to memorize meaningless words, but a solution is to convert those words into intelligible images, for instance, the name "Olczewsky" was imagined by Lorayne as an *old* man *chew*ing, while he *ski*ed [83], while S visualized the word "mavanasanava" as his landlady speaking (Polish: mówić = to speak) from the window, pointing into our guest‐ house (Russian: наши = our) and making a sign of negation (Latvian: nava = is not a) with

The astounding memory of Shereshevskii has been taken as a paradigmatic example of how the development of a skill can affect the development of others. However, this chapter has offered arguments against such a view and presented evidence that he had an ASD. In addi‐ tion, the relationship between memory and autism can be better understood if we reanalyze the life of this extraordinary individual under the light of the mnesic imbalance theory.

The author would like to thank Edith Monroy for reviewing the language of the manuscript.

Outpatient Service, "Dr. Samuel Ramírez Moreno" Psychiatric Hospital, Health Secretariat,

memorize all the orders without written support [95].

180 Recent Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorders - Volume I

her other hand [1].

**5. Conclusion**

**Acknowledgements**

**Author details**

Mexico

Miguel Ángel Romero-Munguía

Address all correspondence to: romero\_munguia@yahoo.com


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**Section 3**

**Aetiological Factors - Genetics**

**Aetiological Factors - Genetics**

**Chapter 10**

**Genetic Evaluation of**

Sharmila Banerjee-Basu

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53900

**1. Introduction**

**Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders**

While the genetic component of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has been clearly estab‐ lished from various lines of study, the multitude of genes and chromosomal loci associated with ASD has made identification of the underlying molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis difficult to resolve. A range of diverse methodologies and study types have identified both rare and common genetic variants in ASD candidate genes and chromosomal loci. Moreover, the recent development of high-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and the increasing usage of chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) has led to a significant expansion in the number of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and copy number variants (CNVs) potentially affecting one or more genes that have been identified in ASD individuals. This, in turn, has given critical insight into the molecular and cellular processes that may be

However, it is important to note that there is no genetic test available for the diagnosis of ASD. Rather, genetic testing is primarily aimed at identifying genetic variants potentially responsi‐ ble for disease pathogenesis in a given individual diagnosed with ASD. Furthermore, the utility of NGS and CMA in genetic evaluation of ASD individuals is dependent on proper interpretation and reporting of test results. In this chapter we will discuss 1) genetic testing technologies currently available for the identification of genetic variation in ASD cases, 2) the genes and genomic loci targeted by single nucleotide and copy number variants that have been linked to ASD susceptibility, 3) the bioinformatics tools that enable researchers to process the enormous amount of genetic data associated with ASD, and 4) challenges that exist in the

> © 2013 Larsen 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,

© 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,

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

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

preferentially targeted for disruption by genetic lesions in ASD patients.

interpretation and reporting of genetic evaluation results in ASD cases.

Eric C. Larsen, Catherine Croft Swanwick and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
