Autism May Differ in Brains of Boys and Girls
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new imaging study of preschoolers has seemingly identified gender differences in the way autism may manifest itself in the brain.
"This research adds to a growing body of evidence that there are differences between boys and girls with autism," said study lead author Christine Wu Nordahl.
"This is not surprising given that there are so many more males with autism than females," said Nordahl, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute.
At issue is the anatomy of the brain's largest fiber bundle structure, the corpus callosum, which connects the brain's two hemispheres.
Investigators studying nearly 140 young children with an autism spectrum disorder found that while all autism patients have fiber bundles that differ from brains of typical people, the nature of those differences change by gender.
Compared to girls with the neurobehavioral disorder, boys with autism were seen to have smaller callosal regions linking up to the part of the brain that regulates emotions and decision-making (the orbitofrontal cortex). By contrast, girls with autism were seen to have smaller callosal regions linking up with the brain region that controls planning and executing tasks (the anterior frontal cortex).
Identifying and understanding these biological differences may eventually improve how autism is diagnosed and treated in boys and girls, Nordahl noted.
"We don't yet know enough about females with autism because most research studies do not have equal numbers of females and males with autism in their samples," Nordahl said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that autism spectrum disorders -- which affect about one in 68 American children -- is almost five times more common among boys than girls.
For this study, researchers used MRI scans to examine the brain structures of 112 boys and 27 girls with autism and 53 boys and 29 girls without autism. All were between 3 and 5 years old. The researchers were particularly interested in the way that nerve fibers projected from the corpus callosum to other areas of the brain.
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new imaging study of preschoolers has seemingly identified gender differences in the way autism may manifest itself in the brain.
"This research adds to a growing body of evidence that there are differences between boys and girls with autism," said study lead author Christine Wu Nordahl.
"This is not surprising given that there are so many more males with autism than females," said Nordahl, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute.
At issue is the anatomy of the brain's largest fiber bundle structure, the corpus callosum, which connects the brain's two hemispheres.
Investigators studying nearly 140 young children with an autism spectrum disorder found that while all autism patients have fiber bundles that differ from brains of typical people, the nature of those differences change by gender.
Compared to girls with the neurobehavioral disorder, boys with autism were seen to have smaller callosal regions linking up to the part of the brain that regulates emotions and decision-making (the orbitofrontal cortex). By contrast, girls with autism were seen to have smaller callosal regions linking up with the brain region that controls planning and executing tasks (the anterior frontal cortex).
Identifying and understanding these biological differences may eventually improve how autism is diagnosed and treated in boys and girls, Nordahl noted.
"We don't yet know enough about females with autism because most research studies do not have equal numbers of females and males with autism in their samples," Nordahl said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that autism spectrum disorders -- which affect about one in 68 American children -- is almost five times more common among boys than girls.
For this study, researchers used MRI scans to examine the brain structures of 112 boys and 27 girls with autism and 53 boys and 29 girls without autism. All were between 3 and 5 years old. The researchers were particularly interested in the way that nerve fibers projected from the corpus callosum to other areas of the brain.
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