Definition
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) twin and family studies showed during the 1990s that the behavioral phenotype extends beyond the clinical diagnoses of autism and ASD to include related milder behaviors or personality traits in the relatives of affected individuals. These qualitatively similar ASD-related behaviors in relatives are termed the broader autism phenotype (BAP) (see Losh et al. 2011, for a review). Although several authors have reported that these symptoms and traits are continuously distributed in the general population, the term “BAP” has not been used to describe individuals with social communication difficulties from population samples (see Constantino 2011, for a review of this literature).
Researchers have defined BAP characteristics using interview and questionnaire methods, neuropsychological and neurophysiological testing, and neuroimaging (Bailey and Parr 2003; Dawson et al. 2002; Losh et al. 2011). However, there is no formal definition of the BAP due...
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References and Readings
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Parr, J. R., Wittemeyer, K., & Le Couteur, A. S. (2011). Commentary: The broader autism phenotype implications for research & clinical practice. In D. Amaral, D. Geschwind, & G. Dawson (Eds.), Autism spectrum disorders (pp. 521–524). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Parr, J., Le-Couteur, A.S. (2016). Broader Autism Phenotype. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_868-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_868-5
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