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- So we define autism as 
a behavioral syndrome,

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which means it's a co-occurrence

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of certain behavioral phenomena.

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There are two key phenomenon.

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One are certain kinds 
of social deficits.

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Deficits in regards 
to social interaction.

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And the other domain 
is a little bit of

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a messier umbrella term.

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We use the term ritualistic 
repetitive behaviors.

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Autism is defined 
by behaviors only.

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So it's very different 
from diabetes

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that we have a very specific

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biological test 
about insulin levels,

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or a sickle cell that we 
know is due to a single gene.

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And as a result, it's a bit 
of a hodgepodge, frankly.

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It's defined clinically on 
the basis of these behaviors

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because currently 
that's what we treat.

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But what we've learned over 
the last 10 or 15 years

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particularly from genetics

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is that there are 
multiple autisms.

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We have some people with autism

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that have intellectual 
disability.

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What used to be termed 
mental retardation.

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We have some that 
have high IQ's.

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We have some that have 
more severe ritualistic

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and repetitive 
behaviors, and some

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that have milder ritualistic 
and repetitive behaviors.

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As we sort of look 
under the hood,

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when we look at the brain 
or we look at genetics,

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based on defining 
people as having autism,

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we find a bunch of 
different stuff,

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and that's essentially 
a problem in our field

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because we find too much.