In the developed world, rates of autism spectrum diagnoses have skyrocketed in recent years, raising the specter that a new environmental factor has been altering the developmental trajectory of the youngest children. Searches for putative environmental influences, however, have generally come up empty, even as researchers have identified very strong genetic influence on the disorders. The disparate rates of progress provide some support for an alternate interpretation: autism has always been around at roughly this level; we've just gotten much better at diagnosing it.
A study in the UK now provides a bit more support for this argument. Researchers have performed a large-scale survey of adults, looking for indications of autism spectrum disorders where none had ever been diagnosed. And they found cases, enough to suggest that the rates haven't changed considerably.
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