Recommended watching on causes of Autism: https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_chung_autism_what_we_know_and_what_we_don_t_know_yet https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_c

Recommended watching on causes of Autism: https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_chung_autism_what_we_know_and_what_we_don_t_know_yet https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_chung_autism_what_we_know_an... 3 major factors that are highly correlated: 1) Using a particular drug 2) Age of father 3) Being male Majority is genetics though, so if the two parents are both highly intelligent and/or on the spectrum, good chances the child will be as well. Autism is principally caused by the brain neurons developing too quickly during development, and then not reaching the same levels in fully developed adults. One theory thrown around is it's the rapid neuron development, so having intelligent parents means you have a chance of overshooting the threshold of "safe" development resulting in Autism. I presume this study has better, more-up-to-date metrics though.