Researchers have long known that autism is more common in males than in females. In fact, autism is about 5 times more common in boys than in girls; 1 in 54 boys is diagnosed with autism, while only 1 in 252 girls is (as of a 2008 study.) Now, a new study has given them clues as to why that might be.
The study, from University of Washington Medical School, has found that women who have autism have more extreme genetic mutations than males, which suggests that their threshold for protecting against mutations is higher. In other words, males are affected even with less extreme mutations, while females need to have more extreme genetic alterations to show symptoms of autism.
The study found that other neurodevelopmental disorders showed similar patterns as well.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227125236.htm – 研究人員早就發覺，患有自閉症的男性普遍比女性多。事實上，有自閉症的男孩比女孩多5倍; 54個男孩子中就有一個患有自閉症，而252個女孩子中只有1個（根據2008年的調查數據）。最近，一項新的研究提供了線索，為我們找出個中原因。
這項出自華盛頓大學醫學院的研究指出，患有自閉症的女性出現基因突變的情況比男性多，這説明她們防止突變的保護機制界限值較高。即是說，較少基因突變的男性也會受到自閉症的影響，而女性則會在出現較多的基因變異情況下，才出現自閉症狀。
研究更發現，在其它發展性障礙的研究中，亦出現類似結果。