154 Maternal Twins and Male Gender Bias in Autism Spectrum Disorders
supports the public’s belief that a single cure for ASD will be found.
Maintaining the ASD diagnosis will also continue to support the reifying
business of ASD research funding, journals, and societies. Unless the
ASD diagnosis is clearly renounced as scientifically arbitrary, the wide
ASD coverage of 1% or more of the population, along with the many
errantly definitive diagnostic assessments will continue to reify and prop
up the ASD diagnosis. More than seventy years of research studying the
arbitrary diagnosis of autism has not resulted in any targeted medical
treatments. Now is the time to abandon the ASD diagnosis in research.”In addition to Waterhouse et al. [48] who have voiced their concerns, there are
other scientists who are not fixated on the genes only concept and have begun
to look outside of the box. Hallmayer et al. [6] published an important study in- This was one of the largest twin‐pair studies up to that date. They com-
pleted 192 twin‐pair studies and reported that a large degree of risk for ASD in
maternal twin pairs was due to environmental factors and a smaller risk was
due to heritability or genetic factors. Of note, they did not consider the de novo
mutations and single CNVs as we describe below. We would like to present
scientific evidence that besides the few genetic diseases mentioned in
Chapter 2, the rest of the ASDs are caused by environmental factors. The
genetic mutations that are observed are caused by environmental factors that
reach a developing fetal brain. The major culprits are synthetic chemicals that
are introduced into our environment which are highly mutagenic. Their effects
may not be obvious if they are introduced to an adult since an adult brain is
fully developed but if introduced to a developing fetus they can cause signifi-
cant mutations in a fetal brain [2]. In addition, if a fetus is exposed to these
agents during the early stages of development they selectively deplete certain
brain primordial cells, causing skewed brain development and can result in
autism. The wide “spectrum” that is observed in ASD is most likely is due to the
timing of the exposure to a synthetic chemical or chemicals that a fetus is
exposed to during his or her fetal development. Figure 6.5 explains the poten-
tial mechanism of the “spectrum” seen in ASD children.
In our studies we have shown that among hundreds of different cell types
that are found in human fetal brain cell lines, olfactory‐, oxytocin‐ and arginine
vasopressin (AVP)‐receptor positive cells are highly susceptible to certain
components of synthetic fragrances. Human beings develop a highly elaborate
network of oxytocin and A receptors during fetal development. Oxytocin and
AVP are not produced until after birth. Therefore, until birth these receptors
are not fully functional but become functional when oxytocin and AVP are
being produced by the newborn brain cells. If oxytocin‐ and AVP‐receptor car-
rying neurons and compartments of the brain are reduced significantly, the
newborn will have impaired social development and his or her social com-
munication would be severely impaired. However, if a fetus is exposed to any