This from New Scientist:
AUTISM seems to cause female, but not male, brains to look more masculine. This suggests that one controversial view of autism, as an extreme version of the male brain, may need rethinking.
Simon Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, UK, has found that men tend to be better at systematising tasks and females better at empathising ones – though it’s unclear whether these differences are innate. As people with autism tend to be good systematisers and below average empathisers, he has argued that autism may be an extreme version of the male brain, or EMB.
Baron-Cohen’s team used MRI scans to look for differences in the volume of various brain regions in 120 adults, half men, half women, half with autism, half without. Differences between females with and without autism were similar to the differences between ordinary male and female brains, supporting the EMB theory. However, the brains of males with autism were no more male than those without.
So, autistic females seem to have more male-like brains, but being a male with autism doesn’t affect brain volume – I guess because the required volume is already there in those brain regions.
So now I am thinking, is there a connection between lesbianism and autism? According to autism-help.org:
Autistic adults have, in general, differences in sexuality from the norm. Many more are asexual than in the average population. It is believed that there is a slightly higher pecentage of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered autistics than in the average population.
I would suggest that lesbians are more likely to be slightly on the autistic scale, especially Asperger’s.