Differently different?: A commentary on the emerging social cognitive neuroscience of female autism.

IF 4.9 2区 医学 Q1 ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM Biology of Sex Differences Pub Date : 2024-06-13 DOI:10.1186/s13293-024-00621-3
Gina Rippon
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Abstract

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition, behaviourally identified, which is generally characterised by social communication differences, and restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. It has long been claimed that it is more common in males. This observed preponderance of males in autistic populations has served as a focussing framework in all spheres of autism-related issues, from recognition and diagnosis through to theoretical models and research agendas. One related issue is the near total absence of females in key research areas. For example, this paper reports a review of over 120 brain-imaging studies of social brain processes in autism that reveals that nearly 70% only included male participants or minimal numbers (just one or two) of females. Authors of such studies very rarely report that their cohorts are virtually female-free and discuss their findings as though applicable to all autistic individuals. The absence of females can be linked to exclusionary consequences of autism diagnostic procedures, which have mainly been developed on male-only cohorts. There is clear evidence that disproportionately large numbers of females do not meet diagnostic criteria and are then excluded from ongoing autism research. Another issue is a long-standing assumption that the female autism phenotype is broadly equivalent to that of the male autism phenotype. Thus, models derived from male-based studies could be applicable to females. However, it is now emerging that certain patterns of social behaviour may be very different in females. This includes a specific type of social behaviour called camouflaging or masking, linked to attempts to disguise autistic characteristics. With respect to research in the field of sex/gender cognitive neuroscience, there is emerging evidence of female differences in patterns of connectivity and/or activation in the social brain that are at odds with those reported in previous, male-only studies. Decades of research have excluded or overlooked females on the autistic spectrum, resulting in the construction of inaccurate and misleading cognitive neuroscience models, and missed opportunities to explore the brain bases of this highly complex condition. A note of warning needs to be sounded about inferences drawn from past research, but if future research addresses this problem of male bias, then a deeper understanding of autism as a whole, as well as in previously overlooked females, will start to emerge.

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与众不同?:关于女性自闭症的新兴社会认知神经科学的评论。
自闭症是一种神经发育性疾病,从行为学上可以确定,一般表现为社会交流差异、行为和兴趣模式的限制性和重复性。一直以来,自闭症在男性中更为常见。自闭症患者中男性居多的现象已成为自闭症相关问题(从识别和诊断到理论模型和研究议程)各个领域的焦点框架。与此相关的一个问题是,在关键研究领域几乎完全没有女性的身影。例如,本文对 120 多项有关自闭症患者大脑社交过程的脑成像研究进行了回顾,结果显示,近 70% 的研究仅包括男性参与者或极少数(仅一或两名)女性参与者。此类研究的作者很少报告他们的研究对象中几乎没有女性,并且在讨论他们的研究结果时,好像他们的研究结果适用于所有自闭症患者。自闭症患者中没有女性可能与自闭症诊断程序的排斥性后果有关,这些程序主要是针对男性群体开发的。有明显证据表明,不符合诊断标准的女性人数过多,因此被排除在正在进行的自闭症研究之外。另一个问题是长期以来存在的一种假设,即女性自闭症表型与男性自闭症表型大致相同。因此,从基于男性的研究中得出的模型可以适用于女性。然而,现在人们发现,女性的某些社会行为模式可能与男性有很大不同。这包括一种被称为伪装或掩饰的特殊社交行为,与试图掩饰自闭症特征有关。在性/性别认知神经科学领域的研究方面,新出现的证据表明,女性在社交大脑的连接和/或激活模式上存在差异,这与以往仅针对男性的研究报告中的内容不符。数十年来的研究排除或忽视了自闭症谱系中的女性,导致构建了不准确和误导性的认知神经科学模型,错失了探索这一高度复杂病症的大脑基础的机会。对于从过去的研究中得出的推论,我们需要敲响警钟,但如果未来的研究能够解决男性偏见的问题,那么对自闭症整体以及之前被忽视的女性的更深入了解就会开始出现。
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来源期刊
Biology of Sex Differences
Biology of Sex Differences ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM-GENETICS & HEREDITY
CiteScore
12.10
自引率
1.30%
发文量
69
审稿时长
14 weeks
期刊介绍: Biology of Sex Differences is a unique scientific journal focusing on sex differences in physiology, behavior, and disease from molecular to phenotypic levels, incorporating both basic and clinical research. The journal aims to enhance understanding of basic principles and facilitate the development of therapeutic and diagnostic tools specific to sex differences. As an open-access journal, it is the official publication of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences and co-published by the Society for Women's Health Research. Topical areas include, but are not limited to sex differences in: genomics; the microbiome; epigenetics; molecular and cell biology; tissue biology; physiology; interaction of tissue systems, in any system including adipose, behavioral, cardiovascular, immune, muscular, neural, renal, and skeletal; clinical studies bearing on sex differences in disease or response to therapy.
期刊最新文献
Sex differences in contextual fear conditioning and extinction after acute and chronic nicotine treatment. Sex dimorphism and tissue specificity of gene expression changes in aging mice. The Four Core Genotypes mouse model: evaluating the impact of a recently discovered translocation. Quantitative proteomic profiling reveals sexual dimorphism in the retina and RPE of C57BL6 mice. Human-specific protein-coding and lncRNA genes cast sex-biased genes in the brain and their relationships with brain diseases.
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