Mental retardation is linked to 50 genes

The mental disability is the slow and incomplete acquisition of cognitive habilyties of people. According to the magazine Nature , German scientists identified 50 genes , apparently, linked to Mental retardation , which would help facilitate its diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

The researchers, from Institute of molecular genetics Max Planck Berlin , consider that there is a great variety of genetic defects that can lead to intellectual disability, of which 90 have been related to mutations in the chromosome X.

However, the analyzes did not disclose information about the autosomal mental disability (when the disorder is related to other chromosomes that are not X or Y), although it accounts for 90% of cases of mental retardation.

The study analyzed 136 families that had some member with recessive intellectual disability, which occurs when there are two defective copies of the gene that causes the disorder, that is, both the father and the mother transmit their children a defective copy.

As a result, 50 new genes that could be linked to the development of these diseases, as well as new mutations that had already been linked to neurological conditions . Scientists say that said genes are involved in important processes for the development and normal functioning of the brain .

What is mental disability?

In the next video of the ONCE Foundation the most important characteristics of the condition are explained, as well as the types of mental disability that can suffer the human being.

This type of disorders are accompanied by alterations in behavior, problems of adaptation and difficulties in the areas of attention, memory Y language .

Among the most common causes of the condition aretraumatisms , infections , bad habits during the pregnancy , the alcohol , the tobacco , genetic, emotional and environmental factors.