[brnaftr360]

I'm interested in the neurological differences in the male and female brain as they relate to ASD. If we accept the findings in Ingalhalikar et al.[0] it seems to me like there is some explanatory power in the evident disproportion of occurrence of ASD in females. On one hand it appears the female connectome tends to favor a strategy of "indiscretion" whereas men do the opposite, instead relying on discrete processes. If we follow another study, they reason that the increased male variability in brain development may lead to susceptibility of certain disorders[1]. From the "purely neurological" pathology, is this something that might fit your findings? Where, if women aren't less susceptible then perhaps men are in terms of brain development?

And then we might consider the process of socialization as well, which I'd expect could lead to differing outcomes on the nose.

I don't know how extensive the issue is, or why it is, but I read a Wired article that indicated most pain medication studies focused exclusively on male subjects, and 96% did not compare differences between genders[2]. But also indicated differences in the way that pain is handled. If we extrapolate this into a trend, what else might we missing in the long run with such an oversight? Not to say that it is one, but if.

[0] https://www.pnas.org/content/111/2/823 [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33044802/ [3] https://www.wired.com/story/womens-pain-is-different-from-me...

[SubiculumCode]

This is absolutely correct. Early medical research was dominated by the assumption that males and females will react similarly to drugs, which is just not the case. Our labs has focused on recruiting females with autism in part because concerns of equity, but also because it might give us insight of the causal mechanisms underlying autism.