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Is autism an extreme of the male brain?

Is autism an extreme of the male brain?. Simon Baron-Cohen Autism Research Centre Cambridge University. Triad of difficulties. Social Communication Imagining others minds Empathizing. Triad of strengths. Islets of obsessions repetitive ability with systems behaviour

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Is autism an extreme of the male brain?

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  1. Is autism an extremeof the male brain? Simon Baron-Cohen Autism Research Centre Cambridge University

  2. Triad of difficulties Social Communication Imagining others minds Empathizing

  3. Triad of strengths Islets of obsessions repetitive ability with systems behaviour Systemizing

  4. The autistic spectrum: two subgroups • Classic autism • Any point on the IQ scale • Involves language delay • Asperger Syndrome • Individuals of normal IQ or above • No language delay

  5. Genetics of autism • Twin studies • Sibling risk rates • The ‘broader phenotype’

  6. Autism: the sex ratio • Autism spectrum: 4:1 (male:female) • Asperger Syndrome: 9:1

  7. Hans Asperger (1944) “The autistic personality is an extreme variant of male intelligence… In the autistic individual the male pattern is exaggerated to the extreme”

  8. Sex vs. Gender • Pre 1960’s: • ‘Gender’ referred to the inflection of nouns • 1972: • John Money distinguished ‘sex’ from ‘gender’ • The John/Joan case (David Reimer) (1965-2004) • Today in the US: • ‘gender’ has replaced ‘sex’, as if it is a synonym

  9. (At least) 6 ways to think about sex • Chromosomal sex • Gonadal sex • Brain sex • Gender identity • Gender behaviour • Sexual orientation

  10. Sex differences in the mind: the classical view Spatial ability (right hemisphere) males > females Language (left hemisphere) females > males Mathematical ability males > females

  11. Boys > girls: Toy vehicles, constructional toys, and mechanical toys Girls > boys: Dolls, enacting social and emotional themes

  12. Males > females: maths, computing, physics, engineering, tool-making Females > males: Primary school teaching, nursing, social work, counselling

  13. Two psychological processes • Empathizing (E) • identify a person’s thoughts and feelings • respond to these with an appropriate emotion • Systemizing (S) • analyse or build a system • mechanical, natural, abstract, collectible

  14. Different profiles • S > E : more common in males? • E > S : more common in females? • S >> E : more common in autism?

  15. Empathizing

  16. Systemizing

  17. The Empathy Quotient (EQ): examples • I really enjoy caring for people • People often tell me I went too far in driving my point home in a discussion

  18. The Empathy Quotient (max = 80) mean sd Females 47.2 10.2 Males 41.8 11.2 AS 20.4 11.6

  19. The Systemizing Quotient (SQ): examples • When I listen to a piece of music, I always notice the way it’s structured • If there was a problem with the electrical wiring in my home, I’d be able to fix it myself

  20. The Systemizing Quotient (SQ)(max = 80) mean sd Females 24.1 9.5 Males 30.3 11.7 AS 35.9 15.2

  21. Empathizing +3 +3 +2 Type B Systemizing +1 Type E Type S -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 Extreme E Extreme S -1 -1 -2 -2 -3 -3

  22. Look at individuals, not their sex Scatter plot of EQ and SQ scores

  23. Percentage showing each brain type

  24. stern sarcastic dispirited suspicious

  25. grateful preoccupied insisting imploring

  26. Eyes Test (max = 25) x sd Females 22.1 2.0 Males 19.5 2.6 AS 16.6 2.9 Fathers 17.3 1.6 Mothers 18.9 2.1

  27. females > males males > females fMRI whilst empathizing

  28. Finding the target (speed) mean sd Females 66.7 36.7 Males 46.2 20.5 AS 32.2 27.0 Fathers 32.8 17.7 Mothers 48.6 31.8

  29. Sex differences whilst systemizing

  30. Eye contact at 12-18 months old mean sd Girls 22.0 12.1 Boys 16.1 10.0 Autism 5.3 2.2

  31. Testing for sex differences in newborns

  32. % of babies showing a looking preference Face Mobile Equal Girls 36 17 47 Boys 25 43 32

  33. Biological mechanisms Foetal testosterone Animal research Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) Genetics Turner’s Syndrome (XO)

  34. Amniocentesis: testing Geschwind’s theory Foetal testosterone influences lateralization

  35. Foetal testosterone predicts • eye contact (12 m) • language (18 m) • social relationships (48 m) • Narrow interests (48 m)

  36. Assortative mating of two systemizers? • Both parents faster on the Embedded Figures Test • Both parents have a higher AQ • Both parents have higher rate of engineering among their fathers

  37. The ‘autistic spectrum’: brain type S?Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) x s.d. AS 35.8 6.5 Mathematicians 21.5 6.4 Males 17.8 6.8 Females 15.4 5.7

  38. “The curious incident of the dog in the night” rate of autism Maths students 1.8% General population 0.5%

  39. Summary Empathizing +3 +3 +2 Type B Systemizing +1 Type E Type S -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 Extreme E Extreme S -1 -1 -2 -2 -3 -3

  40. Some of our team Genetics Lindsey Kent Psychological tests Sally Wheelwright, Ofer Golan Foetal testosterone Rebecca Knickmeyer Svetlana Lutchmaya New born babies Jennifer Connellan Anna Bakti Neuroimaging Ed Bullmore, Chris Ashwin Howard Ring

  41. For more information, visit www.autismresearchcentre.com

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