HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Autism it appears to develop differently in girls and boys, so the findings of research conducted primarily with boys may not apply to girls, a new study suggests.
Autistic spectrum disorder it is four times more common in boys, which may help explain why there is much less research on autism in girls.
“This new study provides us with a roadmap for understanding how to better relate current and future evidence-based interventions to the underlying genetic and brain profiles, so that we can get the right treatment for the right individual,” he said. principal investigator Kevin Pelphrey. He is an expert on autism at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Brain Institute.
“This broadly advances our understanding of autism by revealing that there can be different causes between boys and girls,” Pelphrey added in a university press release.
For the study, researchers combined brain imaging with genetic research to learn more about autism in girls.
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Functional MRI was used to examine brain activity during social interactions. He showed that girls with autism use different sections of the brain than girls without autism.
The difference between girls with and without autism was not the same as the difference between boys with and without autism, meaning that the brain mechanisms involved in autism vary by gender, according to the study authors.
The researchers also found that girls with autism had a much larger number of rare variants of active genes during the early development of a brain region called a striatum. A section of the widget is believed to be involved in the interpretation of social interaction and language.
The findings were published April 16 in the journal Brain.
Ultimately, Pelphrey said, the team hopes to use the results to generate new ones autism treatment strategies tailored to girls.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more advantages autism.
SOURCE: University of Virginia, press release, April 20, 2021
