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Sex differences and autism: brain function during verbal fluency and mental rotation
journal contribution
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 CritchleyAutism 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.
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Publication status
- Published
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- Published version
Journal
PLoS ONEISSN
1932-6203Publisher
Public Library of ScienceExternal DOI
Issue
6Volume
7Article number
e38355Department affiliated with
- Clinical and Experimental Medicine Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2012-10-31First Open Access (FOA) Date
2012-10-31First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2012-10-12Usage metrics
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