A total of 378 mathematics undergraduates (selected for being strong at “systemizing”) and 414 students in other (control)
disciplines at Cambridge University were surveyed with two questions: (1) Do you have a diagnosed autism spectrum condition?
(2) How many relatives in your immediate family have a diagnosed autism spectrum condition? Results showed seven cases of
autism in the math group (or 1.85%) vs one case of autism in the control group (or 0.24%), a ninefold difference that is significant.
Controlling for sex and general population sampling, this represents a three- to sevenfold increase for autism spectrum conditions
among the mathematicians. There were 7 of 1,405 (or 0.5%) cases of autism in the immediate families of the math group vs 2
of 1,669 (or 0.1%) cases in the immediate families of the control group, which again is a significant difference. These results
confirm a link between autism and systemizing, and they suggest this link is genetic given the association between autism
and first-degree relatives of mathematicians.
Keywords Autism - Broader autism phenotype - Genetic risk - Mathematical talent - Systemizing