The Familial Incidence of Symptoms of Scotopic Sensitivity/Irlen Syndrome

Abstract

The familial incidence of Scotopic Sensitivity/Irlen Syndrome was investigated using parents of 751 children identified with symptoms. Children were identified by methods independent of their parents' symptoms or lack of symptoms. For these children, there was an 84% chance of either one or both parents showing similar symptoms, with similar numbers of mothers identified with symptoms as fathers. The data suggest that Scotopic Sensitivity/Irlen Syndrome may be a genetically based deficit in visual processing, but the simplest genetic models do not appear to fit.