The following is a link to a lecture that I provided at Autism One 2014. The same is laden with some medical verbiage but it was meant to illustrate my way of thinking in regards to the causation of autism. I appreciate the kindness of the organizers in inviting me to offer a contrarian point of view to the antivaccine movement and to have published my lecture. (Note: Across the hall from my lecture Andrew Wakefield was delivering his presentations. When I directed members of the audience that believed in the mercury or MMR causation across the hall, it was meant to emphasize the fact that Mr. Wakefield and I hold polarizing views in regards to autism. Primarily, I emphasize hard science, not conspiracy theories).
The abstract for this lecture read as follows:
Autism is a developmental disorder caused by abnormal divisions of germinal cells. Evidence for this fact is based on the presence of malformations in the brains of autistic individuals. This mechanism of action appears to hold true for cases of autism of known (syndromic) or unknow (idiopathic) causation. Dr. Casanova’s specific area of focus recently has been the identification of risk factors that can propitiate germinal cell divisions during brain development in genetically susceptible individuals with autism. At present, one of the more intriguing factors appears to be the use of prenatal ultrasound. Dr. Casanova discusses the possibility that a triple hit in autism could explain the observed clinical heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorders. In this regard, variations in the severity of an exogenous factor(s) (one hit), timing during brain development (2nd hit), and genetic susceptibility of the individual (3rd hit) may account for clinical heterogeneity.
The video for the lecture (55 minutes long) is found at: