Autism and its Impact Vary in Men and Women

Autism a developmental disorder appears in the first three years of life and has adverse affects on the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures say that around 1 in 88 American Children are affected by autism.

The new study from the Autism Researcher Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, states that men and women with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) may show significant differences in the cognitive functions impacted by the condition. 

The study published in Oct 17 journal PLOS ONE was led by Meng-Chuan Lai and colleagues from the Autism Research Centre.

It is known that individuals with autism show sex specific differences in serum biomarkers, genetics and brain anatomy. But not much is known about the sex dependant differences in cognition caused by ASC.

In this study they compared four aspects of cognition in adults with ASC to those with typical development. The researchers noticed that perception of facial emotions was equally impaired across both sexes in individuals with ASC.

The tasks involving attention to detail or dexterity requiring strategic thinking, it was seen women with ASC performed comparably to women without ASC, but men with ASC showed more difficulties than normal men.

Based on the result the researcher's state that the severity with which certain cognitive functions are affected by autism may be dependent on sex, and has implications for evaluation and intervention of ASC.

"What we know about males with ASC should not be assumed to generalize to females", said Dr. Lai. "Their similarities and differences need to be investigated systematically in autism research."