Males are diagnosed with autism much more frequently than females, and most research study samples reflect this male predominance. The result is that autistic females are understudied. There is a critical need to increase our understanding of autistic females, both biologically and clinically. The only way to do this is to recruit sex-balanced cohorts in studies so that similarities and differences between males and females can be evaluated in all autism research studies.
This commentary article written by Dr. Nordahl aims to
- provide historical context about how females came to be under-represented in all research, not just in the field of autism
- learn from other areas of health and medicine about the potentially dire consequences of not studying both sexes
- draw attention to the need to recruit sex-balanced cohorts in autism research, particularly in neuroimaging studies
The full article is available in Autism Research.
