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Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research

Our current understanding of autism is largely based on clinical experiences and research involving male individuals given the male-predominance in prevalence and the under-inclusion of female individuals due to small samples, co-occurring conditions, or simply being missed for diagnosis. There is a...

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Autores principales: Mo, Kelly, Sadoway, Tara, Bonato, Sarah, Ameis, Stephanie H., Anagnostou, Evdokia, Lerch, Jason P., Taylor, Margot J., Lai, Meng-Chuan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8436080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34509922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102811
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author Mo, Kelly
Sadoway, Tara
Bonato, Sarah
Ameis, Stephanie H.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Lerch, Jason P.
Taylor, Margot J.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
author_facet Mo, Kelly
Sadoway, Tara
Bonato, Sarah
Ameis, Stephanie H.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Lerch, Jason P.
Taylor, Margot J.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
author_sort Mo, Kelly
collection PubMed
description Our current understanding of autism is largely based on clinical experiences and research involving male individuals given the male-predominance in prevalence and the under-inclusion of female individuals due to small samples, co-occurring conditions, or simply being missed for diagnosis. There is a significantly biased ‘male lens’ in this field with autistic females insufficiently understood. We therefore conducted a systematic review to examine how sex and gender modulate brain structure and function in autistic individuals. Findings from the past 20 years are yet to converge on specific brain regions/networks with consistent sex/gender-modulating effects. Despite at least three well-powered studies identifying specific patterns of significant sex/gender-modulation of autism-control differences, many other studies are likely underpowered, suggesting a critical need for future investigation into sex/gender-based heterogeneity with better-powered designs. Future research should also formally investigate the effects of gender, beyond biological sex, which is mostly absent in the current literature. Understanding the roles of sex and gender in the development of autism is an imperative step to extend beyond the ‘male lens’ in this field.
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spelling pubmed-84360802021-09-17 Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research Mo, Kelly Sadoway, Tara Bonato, Sarah Ameis, Stephanie H. Anagnostou, Evdokia Lerch, Jason P. Taylor, Margot J. Lai, Meng-Chuan Neuroimage Clin Review Article Our current understanding of autism is largely based on clinical experiences and research involving male individuals given the male-predominance in prevalence and the under-inclusion of female individuals due to small samples, co-occurring conditions, or simply being missed for diagnosis. There is a significantly biased ‘male lens’ in this field with autistic females insufficiently understood. We therefore conducted a systematic review to examine how sex and gender modulate brain structure and function in autistic individuals. Findings from the past 20 years are yet to converge on specific brain regions/networks with consistent sex/gender-modulating effects. Despite at least three well-powered studies identifying specific patterns of significant sex/gender-modulation of autism-control differences, many other studies are likely underpowered, suggesting a critical need for future investigation into sex/gender-based heterogeneity with better-powered designs. Future research should also formally investigate the effects of gender, beyond biological sex, which is mostly absent in the current literature. Understanding the roles of sex and gender in the development of autism is an imperative step to extend beyond the ‘male lens’ in this field. Elsevier 2021-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8436080/ /pubmed/34509922 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102811 Text en © 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review Article
Mo, Kelly
Sadoway, Tara
Bonato, Sarah
Ameis, Stephanie H.
Anagnostou, Evdokia
Lerch, Jason P.
Taylor, Margot J.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title_full Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title_fullStr Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title_full_unstemmed Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title_short Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
title_sort sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: a systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8436080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34509922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102811
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