Twin Study Suggests Girls are Protected From Autism Risk

• By: Virginia Hughes SFARI.org
• April 1st, 2013
• autism sex differences, diagnostic bias, family, female protective effect, genetic risk factors, girls, repetitive behaviors, research, science, social communication differences, twin studies
• 2772    0

A comparison of autism-like behaviors in nearly 10,000 pairs of fraternal twins suggests that girls are somehow protected from the disorder1. The findings, published 19 February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may partly explain why autism is four times more common in boys...

Autism and Asperger’s: Two Distinct Disorders or One Disorder of Varying Symptom Severity

• By: Sam Goldstein, PhD University of Utah School of Medicine Jack A. Naglieri, PhD University of Virginia
• January 1st, 2012
• Asperger's Syndrome, Asperger’s, assessment, autism research, developmental disorders, diagnosis, DSM-V, repetitive behaviors, social communication, social interaction
• 4381    1

Autism has been conceptualized as a biologically determined set of behaviors occurring with varying presentation and severity that is likely as the result of varying cause (for review, see Goldstein, Naglieri, & Ozonoff, 2008). The disorder occurs significantly more often in boys (Smalley,...