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Sex differences and autism: brain function during verbal fluency and mental rotation

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posted on 2023-06-08, 12:35 authored by Felix D C C Beacher, Eugenia Radulescu, Ludovico Minati, Simon Baron-Cohen, Michael V Lombardo, Meng-Chuan Lai, Anne Walker, Dawn Howard, Marcus A Gray, Neil Harrison, Hugo CritchleyHugo Critchley
Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females. This suggests that the neurobiology of autism: 1) may overlap with mechanisms underlying typical sex-differentiation or 2) alternately reflect sex-specificity in how autism is expressed in males and females. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test these alternate hypotheses. Fifteen men and fourteen women with Asperger syndrome (AS), and sixteen typically developing men and sixteen typically developing women underwent fMRI during performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. All groups performed the tasks equally well. On the verbal fluency task, despite equivalent task-performance, both males and females with AS showed enhanced activation of left occipitoparietal and inferior prefrontal activity compared to controls. During mental rotation, there was a significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction across occipital, temporal, parietal, middle frontal regions, with greater activation in AS males and typical females compared to AS females and typical males. These findings suggest a complex relationship between autism and sex that is differentially expressed in verbal and visuospatial domains.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

PLoS ONE

ISSN

1932-6203

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Issue

6

Volume

7

Article number

e38355

Department affiliated with

  • Clinical and Experimental Medicine Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-10-31

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2012-10-31

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2012-10-12

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