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Researchers at the Children's Hospital Boston and members of the Boston-based Autism Consortium said the findings strongly support the emerging idea that autism stems from disruptions in the brain's ability to form new connections in response to experience -- consistent with autism's onset during the first year of life, when many of these connections are normally made.

Dr. Christopher Walsh of Children's Hospital Boston approached the problem by studying Middle Eastern families. In traditional Arab societies, it is common for cousins to marry, increasing the likelihood that offspring will inherit rare mutations. Middle Eastern families also tend to have many children, making them ideal for mapping genes, Walsh said.

"To map a gene for autism in American families, averaging two to three kids per family, you would need to pool many families", Walsh said in a statement. "In larger families, one family alone may be enough to definitively localize a gene."

The findings are published in the journal Science.

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