Sca5 or lincoln ataxia?

摘要

Dr. Sotos describes evidence diat President Abraham Lincoln and his father Thomas Lincoln did not have the type 5 spinocerebellar (SCA5) pheno-type based on handwriting samples and historical references to their gait, and limb function.In 1997, Nee and Higgins considered the SCA5 locus3 when they evaluated a 6-generation family with an unknown type of autosomal dominant ataxia from Rockingham County, VA, which was the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln's paternal grandmother, Bathsheba Herring. Analyses of 2 signatures from deeds executed by Bathsheba at the Rockingham County Courthouse in 1780 by FBI handwriting experts concluded that her abnormal handwriting was likely due to "a lack of coordination" or a "mental or physical impairment."Dr. Sotos disagrees and attributes the tremulousness of the 2 signatures to "poor literacy."