autism, social anxiety and genetics

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I just emailed the following to the contact for this study. I thought I'd post it here as well, to see what people think of it.

I read your study into CNTNAP2 rs2710102 allele and selective mutism/social anxiety with interest, and I have a thought about why opposite alleles may have been risk for social anxiety versus autism.

I recently got tested by 23andMe, and my genotype on that SNP is GG, which from what I understand means I'm homozygous for the risk allele for autism. I have also been diagnosed with PDD NOS.

In terms of social anxiety, I show some characteristics which make me differ from most people:

* I have never blushed in response to an emotional experience (I have blushed for physiological reasons, such as coming in from the cold)
* I am just fine with complete strangers knowing very personal details about me
* whenever I do feel anxious in a social setting, it can be attributed either to fear of being mistreated (I was bullied as a child) or sensory overload, not to fear of negative evaluation
* I find it very hard to relate to descriptions of how embarrassment feels, and I suspect that I'm incapable of feeling embarrassment

So, my thought is: could the A or G allele be related to capacity to feel embarrassment? Social anxiety disorder seems to be a good fit for a condition of unusually high embarrassment. And while many autistics I've met do feel embarrassment, it seems like a subset of autistics, like me, are incapable of feeling embarrassment or have greatly reduced embarrassment. Perhaps one subtype of autism is associated with G allele and reduced embarrassment.

Regarding comorbidity of social anxiety and autism, two possibilities. Firstly, some autistics will likely have the A allele. For those individuals, their risk of social anxiety will be normal-to-high, and the social impairment resulting from autism will put them at greater risk of experiencing humiliation and embarrassment in social situations, providing an environmental trigger for their social anxiety.

Secondly, in some cases, social anxiety in autistics may result from different concerns than non-autistics. In my case, when I do feel anxiety in social situations, it tends to result either from sensory overload or fear of being mistreated, not from fear of doing something embarrassing. Perhaps some people have the inability to feel embarrassed (and theoretically a GG genotype), but either find social interaction overloading, or have extensive experience with being bullied, and therefore experience social anxiety for reasons unrelated to social evaluation.

Also, from what I understand, the G allele is particularly associated with language delay? I had no language delay, but perhaps lack of embarrassment could mark a general tendency to pay less attention to what others are thinking or feeling in everyday interaction. In severe cases, this could result in a speech delay due to reduced motivation to communicate. In particular, speech delayed autistic kids often differ from other speech-delayed children by reduced attempts to compensate for speech delay by gesturing. This could hint at a motivational component to autism-related speech delay.

What do you think? Does this sound plausible?