Male toddlers with autism have significant structural¹ differences in their brains compared to females with the condition, according to research published in the open access journal Molecular² Autism. The journal is publishing a special series of articles looking at the links between sex/gender³ and autism, which reveal additional insights into the role of prenatal sex hormones⁴ and the 'female protective effect'.

 

Autism spectrum⁵ conditions are more common in males than in females, with a 2 or 3:1 male to female bias⁶ in prevalence consistently found in studies. Why this is the case is still not fully⁷ understood.

 

Guest editor Meng-Chuan Lai from the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, UK, said: "Autism has always been perceived as a condition that occurs more often in males, which means that females are usually underrepresented in research studies. This means there's a risk that the scientific and clinical literature provides a partial, male-based understanding of autism.

 

"But autism is clearly not a 'male condition'. Delineating the role that sex and gender play in the characteristics of autism, across multiple levels, may inform both our ability to identify the condition and lead to a greater understanding of its developmental psychology⁸ and biology."

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