[4] The team identified mutations altering two genes on the X chromosome which seem to be implicated in the formation of synapses (communication spaces between neurons), in two families where several members are affected.
[5] Beginning in 2006, Gillberg is involved in a cross-disciplinary project titled "Autism spectrum conditions: the Gothenburg collaborative studies", funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet).
[6] The project is a collaboration between scientists specialized in child and youth psychiatry, molecular biology and neuroscience and involves a genetic part with an international study team of French, British and U.S. researchers examining various aspects autism.
[6][9] In the 1970s, Gillberg and co-workers developed the concept Deficits in Attention, Motor control and Perception (DAMP), which was primarily used in Scandinavia.
[14] With the development of the ADHD concept, the previous, less precise, category of Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD), "a term almost universally employed in child psychiatry and developmental paediatrics from the 1950s to the early 1980s"[12] was replaced.
[12] As of December 2024[update], Gillberg has published 780 papers (listed at PubMed) on DAMP, ADHD and related conditions.
"[20] It has been argued that the failure of some research groups to replicate some of Gillberg's findings "may relate primarily to fundamental differences in diagnostic approach".