I intended this blog post to be about the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, getting locked in fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode, and the mind body connection.
In doing my research for this, I came across a piece that yelled, “Stop the press!”
Many in the autism community say that there is likely a high rate of under- or mis-diagnosis for autistic women. Why? Because autistic girls present differently to autistic boys, and the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5-TR is based on typically male presentation of autism.
This article, reporting research that was presented to a symposium is entirely representative of that.
“The pupils of preschool-age children with autism are slow to constrict in response to light, according to results from two unpublished studies presented … at the 2016 International Meeting for Autism Research in Baltimore. The findings suggest that the pupillary reflex could serve as an early indicator of autism risk.” https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/delayed-pupil-response-to-light-may-be-early-sign-of-autism/
This study was based on pupil response to watching cartoons. Of the 104 children observed in this study, aged between 2 and 6, half were autistic and half were “developing typically”.
But all 104 were boys.
Now, this was in 2016. Three years later, in a study looking at pupillometry, visual perception, and ASD features in a task switching paradigm, this was included in the recommendations:
“While sex-differences was not the central focus of the current research, future studies across the BAP should continue to explore differences in neurobiological correlates such as pupil response and phenotypic variability between males and females.”
(DiCriscio, A.S., Hu, Y. & Troiani, V. Brief Report: Pupillometry, Visual Perception, and ASD Features in a Task-Switching Paradigm. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 5086–5099 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04213-8)
FEMALE AUTISM IS REAL. It’s time, past time, to reflect this in diagnostic criteria and research.
The Auld Skald's Fudgel 