160 Maternal Twins and Male Gender Bias in Autism Spectrum Disorders
and oxytocin and AVP neurohormones represent the center of the main human
communication devices. Without these our social behaviors would be skewed
and our communication abilities would be diminished [54–57].What Method Did We Use?
We diluted 1 μl of a fragrance a million times and then exposed the diluted
fragrance to fetal brain neurons to determine what it did to fetal brain cells.Possible Etiologies of Autism
Accurate scientific data show that in industrialized areas of the world, where
fragrance and other environmental synthetic chemical use are most common,
there are serious mutagenic effects [15]. We maintain that these mutations
increase the probability of ASD. Causation commonly involves multiple fac-
tors, including the time period of fetal development when pregnant mothers
are exposed to potential environmental insults that may interfere with the
developing fetal brain. Generally, weeks 4–18 of gestation are considered to
be the most susceptible period. Previously, we have shown that all of the 98
fragrances we examined have significant mutagenic effects [2]. It should be
noted that various environmental factors can induce not only changes in the
DNA directly, but can induce epigenetic modifications which can change
the DNA codes indirectly by interfering with gene regulation [56,57].Epigenetic Explained
Being epigenetic is one of the new discoveries of modern science. As we
have mentioned previously, only about 1% of human DNA codes for proteins
and such regions are referred to as the coding (also exome) regions of the
genome. The rest of the DNA was previously known as junk DNA or noncod-
ing DNA. In reality, a large part of the so called noncoding DNA serves as a
gene regulator. Epigenetic changes are changes to the noncoding DNA
sequence — a change in phenotype without a change in genotype — which in
turn affect how cells read the genes and respond to external and internal
stimuli at a single cell level. Epigenetic change is a regular and natural occur-
rence but can also be influenced by several factors including age, the environ-
ment, lifestyle, and disease state. Epigenetic modifications can make one
type of brain progenitor neuron change to another type. Epigenetic change
can have more damaging effects and turn abnormal cells into cancer cells. At
least three systems, including DNA methylation, histone modification, and