Autism: Common, heritable, but not harmful

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Gernsbacher, M. A., Dawson, M., & Mottron, L. (2006). Autism: Common, heritable, but not harmful. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(4), 413-414. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x06319097

Publication date: 1 Aug 2006 Added to AutiHub: 3 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Morton Ann Gernsbacher
  2. Michelle Dawson *
  3. Laurent Mottron

Abstract

We assert that one of the examples used by Keller & Miller (K&M), namely, autism, is indeed common, and heritable, but we question whether it is harmful. We provide a brief review of cognitive science literature in which autistics perform superiorly to non-autistics in perceptual, reasoning, and comprehension tasks; however, these superiorities are often occluded and are instead described as dysfunctions.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
43
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
2 / 43 (4.7%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
2 / 189 (1.1%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 2 / 11 (18.2%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 1 / 184 (0.5%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
11 / 189 (5.8%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 10 / 184 (5.4%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
9 / 11 (81.8%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 9 / 189 (4.8%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 9 / 10 (90.0%).
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