Nerds Can't Score? That May be a Good Thing.

Simon Baron-Cohen (Borat’s cousin again!) has an interesting  hypothesis about autism and autism spectrum disorder - that scientists, engineers and similar tech types may be more likely to have children with this affliction.  (See the Nov. 2, 2011 Nature article Scientists and Autism: when geeks meet.)

Baron-Cohen speculates that parents who have an aptitude for “predictable, rule-based systems” and therefore work in the STEM fields may pass on genes that predispose their offspring to autism or ASD, especially when both parents have these traits.  This may explain why mathematicians are more likely to be diagnosed with autism and ASD, and why there are higher autism rates in places like Silicon Valley. Whether or not Baron-Cohen’s hypothesis has anything to it remains to be seen, but it’s an interesting area for research.