Understanding sex bias in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have long been noted to affect many more males than females, and accordingly, sex-specific factors have been hypothesized to increase males’ risk for, or protect females from, ASDs. However, no such factor has been definitively implicated in ASD etiology that can account for its male-biased prevalence, nor is it known whether the major drivers of sex-differential liability act as male-specific risk factors or as female-specific protective factors. Bringing fresh evidence to this question, Robinson et al. (1) report in PNAS the strongest support to date for a female protective effect (FPE) against autistic behavior, as measured quantitatively in general population samples.

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