Sex-related patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.
Lindsay A Olson, Lisa E Mash, Annika Linke and 3 others
PMID 32689820WHAT IT FOUND
Girls with autism showed a link between brain connectivity and early symptom history that boys did not.
Typical sex differences in brain network connectivity, seen in neurotypical children, were absent in those with autism. This suggests autism may alter how the brain develops along typical male or female lines.
Key findings
01Typical sex differences in default mode network connectivity observed in neurotypical children were not present in children with autism.
02In girls with autism, weaker sensorimotor network connectivity was associated with a greater history of early autism symptoms, a relationship not found in boys.
03The results did not fully support theories that autism represents an extreme male brain or a shift toward androgynous neural profiles.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study did not account for pubertal status or menstruation, which can affect brain connectivity. Data was pooled from multiple sites with different scanners and protocols, adding noise despite statistical controls. The sample size was relatively small for neuroimaging, particularly for the subgroup of girls with autism (n=35). Behavioral data was limited to autism severity measures (ADOS/ADI-R), so other cognitive or social factors were not examined. The cross-sectional design cannot determine if the brain connectivity patterns cause symptoms or result from them.
Declared interests
The authors have no financial disclosures or conflicts of interest to report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of typical sex differences in brain connectivity as evidence that autism is fundamentally different in girls versus boys in terms of diagnosis or behavior. The study found no significant difference in how autism affected brain networks between sexes, only that the typical male/female brain distinction was blurred. The finding about sensorimotor connectivity in girls is a correlation with past symptom history, not a diagnostic marker.