Scientists Uncover Key Brain Development Differences in Autistic Boys and Girls

A study indicates that autistic females experience a more rapid rate of cortical thinning throughout childhood.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis have discovered significant variations in brain development between autistic boys and girls aged 2-13. The findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, reveal sex-specific differences in the thickness of the brain’s cortex.

The findings are notable because so few studies have addressed cortical development in autistic girls, who are diagnosed with autism less often than males. Nearly four males are diagnosed with autism for every one female.

“It is clear that this sex bias is due, in part, to underdiagnosis of autism in females,” said Christine Wu Nordahl, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the UC Davis MIND Institute and a senior author on the paper. “But this study suggests that differences in diagnosis are not the full story — biological differences also exist.”