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This could just as well apply to environmental factors though, siblings probably share those. Also the boy/girl factor could be explained by different behavior

• dsacco 10y ago
  >>This could just as well apply to environmental factors though, siblings probably share those. That's correct, but looking at concordance rates between monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (fraternal) twins demonstrates that there is at least a partial genetic connection. Identical twins share the diagnosis in 77% of cases, while fraternal twins only share the diagnosis in 31% of cases.[1] Given that identical twins share more genetic material, the conclusion is that autism has a genetic component to its incidence. That said, most research on the subject, including the paper I'm citing, establishes that there is most likely a dual nature-nurture component. In particular, this study was conducted on twins within the same household, so the genetic component would have been augmented by shared environmental factors. [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4440679/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4440679/