Caution should be taken when interpreting the results of this study. First, the linkage signals on chromosomes 11 and 15 may be due to either a subset of ASD cases with delayed onset of first phrases and normal or high IQ or more general language and IQ loci, which also exist in the absence of ASD. Second, the results are based on a total of seven genome-wide scans for seven traits. Because of the correlations between the traits and the subset analyses, the final number of tests is equivalent to about 5.75 independent genome-wide scans (61). Strictly speaking, none of the LOD scores reached the significant threshold needed for 5.75 independent genome scans. Third, even though we have provided both the locus-specific effect sizes and the linkage locations for the two most significant linkage signals on chromosomes 11 and 15, these estimates should be interpreted with caution because it has been shown that for genome-wide studies, regardless of the nature of phenotypes and the analytic methods, the estimates of locus-specific effect size tend to be inflated (62). In addition, according
