ArticleMolecular autism2015
Sex differences in brain plasticity: a new hypothesis for sex ratio bias in autism.
Article in Molecular autism, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain-based sex differences in autism spectrum disorder across the lifespan: A systematic review of structural MRI, fMRI, and DTI findings.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2021Pooled it
- Associations between maternal occupational history and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in offspring in Denmark.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- MeCP2 Governs maternal hyperandrogenism-induced cortical defects and behavioral alterations via noncanonical AR-dependent regulation of Mef2c.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Frequency-Dependent Modulation of Short-Term Neuronal Dynamics in the Female and Male Dorsal and Ventral Rat Hippocampus.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Role of androgen receptors in sexually dimorphic phenotypes in UBE3A-dependent autism spectrum disorder.iScience · 2025Article
- Global and Regional Trends in Autism Burden from 1990 to 2021: A Data Re-Analysis and Prediction from the Global Burden of Disease Study.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2025Article
- Early selective attention to the articulating mouth as a potential female-specific marker of better language development in autism: a review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The impact of sex/gender-specific funding and editorial policies on biomedical research outcomes: a cross-national analysis (2000-2021).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Habenular volume changes after venlafaxine treatment in patients with major depression.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2024Article
- Sexually dimorphic phenotypes and the role of androgen receptors in UBE3A-dependent autism spectrum disorder.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Sex modulation of faces prediction error in the autistic brain.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Assessing plasticity in the primary sensory cortex and its relation with atypical tactile reactivity in autism: A TMS-EEG protocol.PloS one · 2024Article
- Asymmetry of Characteristics of the Right-Left Hemodynamic Balance of Microcirculation in the Temporal Skin Areas of the Head in Young Male and Female Subjects.Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine · 2023Article
- Sex Differences in Brain Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Sex bias in social deficits, neural circuits and nutrient demand in Cttnbp2 autism models.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Sex and gender in neurodevelopmental conditions.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Autism, thy name is man: Exploring implicit and explicit gender bias in autism perceptions.PloS one · 2023Article
- Cannabidiol for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder: hope or hype?Psychopharmacology · 2022Review
- Characterising sex differences of autosomal DNA methylation in whole blood using the Illumina EPIC array.Clinical epigenetics · 2022Article
- Allopregnanolone: An overview on its synthesis and effects.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Several observations support the hypothesis that differences in synaptic and regional cerebral plasticity between the sexes account for the high ratio of males to females in autism. First, males are more susceptible than females to perturbations in genes involved in synaptic plasticity. Second, sex-related differences in non-autistic brain structure and function are observed in highly variable regions, namely, the heteromodal associative cortices, and overlap with structural particularities and enhanced activity of perceptual associative regions in autistic individuals. Finally, functional cortical reallocations following brain lesions in non-autistic adults (for example, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis) are sex-dependent. Interactions between genetic sex and hormones may therefore result in higher synaptic and consecutively regional plasticity in perceptual brain areas in males than in females. The onset of autism may largely involve mutations altering synaptic plasticity that create a plastic reaction affecting the most variable and sexually dimorphic brain regions. The sex ratio bias in autism may arise because males have a lower threshold than females for the development of this plastic reaction following a genetic or environmental event.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.