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The prenatal sex steroid theory of autism| title | The prenatal sex steroid theory of autism |
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| start_date | 2024/03/04 |
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| schedule | 15h15 |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | Room B10 |
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| summary | Autism is diagnosed in 1 in 25 boys and 1 in 100 girls. This biased sex ratio appears to be true even after taking into account under-diagnosis of females. Autism is strongly genetic but the genes associated with autism must interact with epigenetic factors, given the existence of discordant monozygotic twins. One candidate biological epigenetic mechanism that could explain the biased sex ratio in autism is prenatal sex steroid hormones, since these play a role in ‘masculinizing’ the brain. I summarize work from our lab showing how levels of prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as androgens and estrogens, are associated with typical individual differences in empathy, systemizing and autistic traits, and are elevated in autistic people. |
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| responsibles | Allen |
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Workflow history| from state (1) | to state | comment | date |
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| submitted | published | | 2024/02/28 14:01 UTC |
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