This selective review examines the lack of an explanation for the sharply increasing prevalence of autism, and the lack of any synthesis of the proliferating theories of autism. The most controversial and most widely disseminated notion for increasing prevalence is the measles-mumps-rubella/thimerosal vaccine theory. Less controversial causes that have been proposed include changes in autism diagnostic criteria, increasing services for autism, and growing awareness of the disorder. Regardless of its causes, the increasing prevalence of autism has put pressure on the field of autism research to generate productive and predictive theories of autism. However, the heterogeneity of brain deficits, impaired behaviors, and genetic variants in autism have challenged researchers and theorists, and despite 45 years of research, no standard causal synthesis has emerged. Research going forward should assume that autism is an aggregation of myriad independent disorders of impaired sociality, social cognition, communication, and motor and cognitive skills.

中文翻译：

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自闭症泛滥：日益流行和激增的理论。

这篇有选择性的评论审查了对自闭症患病率急剧增加的解释的缺乏，以及对泛滥的自闭症理论缺乏任何综合。最有争议和最广泛传播的关于增加流行率的概念是麻疹-腮腺炎-风疹/硫柳汞疫苗理论。提出的争议较少的原因包括自闭症诊断标准的变化、自闭症服务的增加以及对这种疾病的认识不断提高。无论其原因如何，自闭症的日益流行给自闭症研究领域带来了压力，以产生富有成效和预测性的自闭症理论。然而，自闭症的大脑缺陷、行为受损和遗传变异的异质性对研究人员和理论家提出了挑战，尽管经过 45 年的研究，没有出现标准的因果综合。未来的研究应该假设自闭症是无数社会性、社会认知、沟通、运动和认知技能受损的独立障碍的集合。