Autism Genes, Math, and Music
October 4, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Genetics, Music, Science
A study of autism among 378 Cambridge University students has found that autism is up to seven times more common among mathematicians than among students in other disciplines, and that it was also five times more common in the siblings of mathematicians, according to the October 5th Times. The genes that are thought to cause autism may also give mathematical, musical and other skills to those without autism. The study was led by Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre, who is quoted as saying:
“It seems clear that genes play a significant role in the causes of autism and that those genes are also linked to certain intellectual skills.”
Seven of the students in the Cambridge study were found to have autism, while only one in a control group of 414 had autism.
Baron-Cohen also notes other studies, one which found that the fathers and grandfathers of children with autism are twice as likely to work in engineering, and that science students also have more autistic relatives with autism than students in the humanities—-two findings that don’t quite adhere with Charlie’s situation. My mother’s father was a civil engineer and many of my relatives on my father’s side are engineers. Jim and I are not scientists, but definitely in the humanities, Jim being a historian and me teaching and writing about literature. Charlie is still working through very basic arithmetic.
He’s always been musical. He’s taken quite easily to learning piano and cello and is able to read music much better than words. I often understand something he’s trying to tell me when he sings part of a song or melody, or just by the tone of his voice, and he’s very attentive to the sounds, tones, and rhythms of our voices. He has no savant abilities though, in the past few months, after watching him swim in the ocean and ride his bike for many, many miles today (”’cause he’s fast,” Jim explained), he’s definitely got some athletic abilities.
Or maybe just some pretty good genes.
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
My Mother’s Father was also an Engineer. He also taught Welding at Community Colleges in his later years. I think he is past 85 now and still living alone on 25 acres in Hunterdon County. My Mother’s Mother was an artist, a talent my son Nicholas also has. Then she was a real estate agent and had an antique store in Wahington and Clinton, NJ for many years. She died after Nick was born of Alzheimer’s which her sister also died of.
Her mother and my mother were both nurses. Not really sure about my Dad’s side as he was adopted and their visits were restricted by my Mother. They ran a bakery when my Dad was in HS.
Almost forgot about my kids father. He is paranoid schizophrenic and has not worked in years, on disability. He was in fitness and furniture moving and his family is all in Canada.
And it just occurred to me after reading about your family that there only one of my maternal grandfather’s grandchildren is an engineer—-all the engineers are really on my dad’s side of the family.
I remember reading Late Talking Children and how those genes/skills are similar. Both my sons have autism, son #1 loves music, son #2 loves math.
My husband was a securities trader, I am an architect. Musicians are on both sides of the family.
We have tons of musicians, and my spouse and his family all have engineering/mathy bents (he’s a programmer). I’m a biologist, but secretly, I’m a liberal arts gal (I also have a BA in English lit), and love history, literature, and the arts in general. My parents are both humanities folk (mom is linguistics PhD, dad MA in history). BUT…Kristina, as you’re well aware, there’s a fine line between “mathy” and “linguistic” in many senses. Chomsky would likely agree, with those ideas of recursiveness etc., inherent in linguistic theory AND in programming. *Godel, Escher, Bach* comes to mind when I think of all of these links.
BUT…Kristina, as you’re well aware, there’s a fine line between “mathy” and “linguistic” in many senses
Right, there are “systems-loving” humanities types as opposed to humanities types who I think of as being “metaphorical thinkers,” for lack of a better term. I only came to realize that I am a systems lover (I was a math and science phobe) through my math, music, science loving son (oh, and yeah, engineers and computer geeks on both sides of his family).
I definitely agree that some branches of the humanities and social sciences are more systemitizing than others. I have Asperger’s and got my degrees in Linguistics, which is pretty systemitizing for a humanity. It tends to surprise people how much data manipulation and problem solving is involved because most people think of language as random.I am quite good at math because to me it has more context, than Biology which was taught to me as a random conglomeration of facts. Chemistry was great but I couldn’t advance in it because of my difficulties in Biology. Most of my friends tend to be computer programmers and engineers, I think it might be because of a similar style of thiking.My grandparents’ generation on both sides didn’t have access to more than a 3d grade education, but my father was an economist (with ADHD) who wanted to be a doctor (he was only awarded a scholarship if he studied what the school wanted him to study). My siblings are a chemist and 2 engineers. My mother’s side of the family are all artists and musicians. Learning instruments and writing always came easily to me but not drawing or singing.
once upon a time I competed in the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley and my favorite was fugues.
Well, I am pretty much into the math and science, as well as music, but also into the arts (my main interestsare physics, math, creative writing, musical composition, and computer programming). I am awful at history, though. See, the thing for me is that for subjects like history, you have to remember an AWFUL LOT of pure rote facts, and then connect the ideas and build abstract understanding.
Whereas, with something like mathematics, you remember some very few simple things, and the rest you can figure out, you can derive, even if almost instantaneously. I am very much the sort of person who cannot keep all the stuff in my head, but can only keep a few things in before they fall out, but once those few things are securely fastened in, I can quickly process them through.
So while I can’t juggle all the info of an arithmetic problem,like 56 x 84 or 14 + 27, unless I have a calculator do it for me, I can take a derivative, apply the chain rule, etc.
My dad was interested in physics and math too, but didn’t get as far in the formal educational system as I have. They didn’t have the AS diagnosis then, but he probablywould have gotten it - he was jumped around, sometimes in gifted classes, sometimes with failing grades. His mom is pretty musical, and his sisters appreciate the arts, and so does he. I remember being a baby and watchinghim play guitar, trying to figure out how to reproduce those strange and wonderful sounds.
I’m in the life sciences, my husband is an engineer, and our not quite 4-yr-old son (PDD-NOS) has loves music, and has always obsessed over numbers and letters. He’s learning to read and do simple math right now, and in fact, his hyperlexia is turning into a useful learning tool. Writing out instructions really helps him focus on a task.
Math and music run throughout our family.
france!!!professeur de piano.interessé par autisme asperger.prépare master à la Sorbonne sur l’autisme et l’oreille absolue!!