A latest study reveals that in autistic women different parts of the brain are affected.
Researchers at Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans on 120 men and women. They diagnosed 30 men and 30 women with autism. The aim was to find out whether autism affects the genders in the same way or differently.
The researchers found that the brain wiring of females and males with autism is quite different.
The team said that brain areas that were unusual in autistic women were similar to the areas that differed between normal males and females. But, the researchers found no such thing in autistic men.
"One of our new findings is that females with autism show neuroanatomical 'masculinization'," said Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, senior author of the study, in a press release. "This may implicate physiological mechanisms that drive sexual dimorphism, such as prenatal sex hormones and sex-linked genetic mechanisms."
Autism is five times more common in men than women. According to Autism Speaks.org, one in 88 Americans has autism. This is a tenfold increase in the past 40 years.
"This is one of the largest brain imaging studies of sex/gender differences yet conducted in autism. Females with autism have long been under-recognized and probably misunderstood," lead researcher Meng-Chuan Lai, said. "The findings suggest that we should not blindly assume that everything found in males with autism applies to females. This is an important example of the diversity within the 'spectrum'."
The co-author of the study, Dr Michael Lombardo, said that grouping by gender can help understand the condition better.
According to Dr Lombardo, the study is a novel way to subgroup autism on the basis of gender that will help the researchers understand the mechanisms that cause autism by lowering heterogeneity through subgrouping.
