Parents are like autistic children

In her doctoral thesis, Maretha de Jonge writes that the parents of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) themselves have problems characteristic of autism.

ASD is a set of severe developmental disorders characterized by difficulties with social interactions and communication and by rigid or stereotypical patterns of behavior. She also found that ASD patients and their fathers perform above average when looking for a detail in a picture. This knowledge can be used to find the genetic basis of ASD.

De Jonge was awarded a PhD from Utrecht University on September 22. Her thesis is called 'The search for endophenotypic markers of Autism Spectrum Disorders'.