Background
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired social interactions, altered communication skills, and restricted interests or repetitive behaviors [
1]. Recent estimates suggest that ASD affects one in 68 children in the US [
2], with a strong sex-related bias. On average, the male to female ratio is estimated to be 4.3:1 [
3]. This striking sex difference raises important questions regarding potential protective factors in females [
4,
5]. For instance, the extreme male brain theory of autism [
6] links ASD etiology to the masaculinizing effects of fetal testosterone [
7] and postulates that ASD represents an exaggerated expression of such masculinization. An alternate hypothesis is that activation of the maternal immune system following infection may have a sex-specific effect on the developing fetal brain, targeting microglia [
8] and increasing the risk of ASD [
9]. However, these theories remain controversial and progress in the field has been hampered by the limited number of neurobiological studies on sex differences in affected individuals.
Little is known about neuroanatomical differences in ASD between males and females, because most studies of individuals with ASD are based on small samples with limited numbers of females. An important question is whether there are sex differences in brain structures associated with the core phenotypes of the disorder: language, social communication, and repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests (RRBI). To the best of our knowledge, only four studies to date have specifically assessed sex differences in cortical morphometry of individuals with ASD. Initial studies included fewer than 10 females with ASD [
10,
11]. First, Bloss et al. [
10] reported that girls with ASD show more anomalies in cerebral lobes volumes than affected boys. Two years later, Schumann et al. [
11] similarly reported more severe structural anomalies in the amygdala in girls with ASD. More recent studies have examined local differences in gray and white matter in larger samples of individuals using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) [
12,
13]. In a sample of 58 participants (
n = 13 females with ASD), Beacher et al. [
12] observed a significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the right inferior parietal lobe, with ASD individuals showing an attenuation of the typical male > female volumetric difference. The largest study to date examined 120 participants (
n = 30 females with ASD) [
13]. Using VBM, Lai and colleagues did not find any significant sex-by-diagnosis interactions in gray matter volume but reported several clusters of sex differences in white matter volume. Not surprisingly, none of the results published to date have been replicated, underscoring the substantial heterogeneity of the ASD phenotype [
14‐
16] and highlighting the need for samples with larger numbers of females.
Previous studies have been based on manual delineation of the amygdala [
11], semi-automated extraction of lobar volumes [
10], or voxel-based morphometry [
12,
13]. Importantly, none of these studies have used surface-based morphometry to provide a comprehensive characterization of sex differences in structural measures such as cortical volume, thickness, and gyrification. Compared to volume-based methods, surface-based methods more accurately reflect the cortical geometry and have proven to be more powerful and reliable in detecting effects, with fewer subjects required to achieve similar levels of significance [
17,
18]. Surface-based methods also allow the distinction between cortical thickness [
19] and gyrification [
20], which provide complementary information about the timing and nature of disrupted neurodevelopmental processes (reviewed in [
21]). Crucially, altered gyrification is thought to reflect early cortical development [
22‐
25], whereas altered cortical thickness is associated with later cortical maturation during childhood and adolescence [
26,
27]. To complement these specific measures, surface-based measurements of local cortical volume can also be used to provide more direct comparison to results from previous studies using voxel-based morphometry.
Here, we leverage a new, large, open-access dataset [
28] to investigate sex differences in brain structure in ASD, using surface-based morphometry. This dataset (autism brain imaging data exchange (ABIDE)) is a consortium effort between 17 international sites sharing their neuroimaging data and collectively contains the largest sample of females with ASD available to date. After careful quality control, we matched each female with ASD (
n = 53) for age and site with one male with ASD. We also matched typically developing (TD) males and females using the same procedures. We then used surface-based morphometry to measure local cortical volume, thickness, and gyrification at each of ~150,000 vertices per hemisphere. A whole-brain approach with stringent correction for multiple comparisons was used to assess the main effect of sex, main effect of diagnosis, and sex-by-diagnosis interaction. Finally, we used bootstrap procedures to examine the stability of our findings and carried out post-hoc power analyses based on the observed effect sizes to estimate the relationship between observed statistical power and sample size.
Sex differences in the brains of typically developing individuals have been extensively examined over the last two decades, with a number of studies reporting robust differences between males and females [
29‐
31]. Based on these extant studies and generally weak volume-based morphometric differences between TD and ASD groups [
14‐
16], we expected significant main effects of sex in the combined group of TD and ASD participants. Preserved typical sex differences in ASD would suggest that the factors underlying the etiology of ASD are, at least partially, independent of the sex. However, genetic [
32‐
35], biochemical [
36], and animal [
37,
38] studies have provided robust evidence for sex-specific biomarkers of autism, lending support to the idea that males and females with ASD may present different clinical and neuroanatomical phenotypes. Clinical studies thus far have reported mixed findings regarding potential differences in the clinical and cognitive profiles of males and females with ASD [
9,
39]. In the absence of clear phenotypic differences and given the paucity of neuroanatomical studies of sex differences in ASD published to date, it was challenging to generate a priori hypotheses regarding which cortical regions would show significant sex-by-diagnosis interactions. Nevertheless, we expected to observe a significant interaction in cortical areas known to play a role in autistic symptoms, such as “social brain” areas as a substrate for social and communication difficulties [
40,
41], cortical nodes of the saliency network, which might be responsible for difficulties in integrating external sensory stimuli and internal states [
42,
43], and/or pre-motor/motor areas densely connected with the striatum as a substrate for repetitive behaviors [
44,
45].
Results
Demographic and cognitive profile
As detailed in Table
1, the four groups (females with ASD, males with ASD, TD females, TD males) did not differ in age (
F = 0.002,
p > 0.999), verbal IQ (
F = 1.536,
p = 0.207), or performance IQ (
F = 1.248,
p = 0.294). However, the four groups differed in full scale IQ (
F = 3.2,
p = 0.024), driven by higher full scale IQ in TD females compared to males with ASD (
p = 0.028).
Autism symptoms
Males and females with ASD did not differ in overall severity of autism as measured with total scores at the ADOS (F = 0.393, p = 0.533). There were also no sex differences in social and communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive behavior, as measured with ADOS and ADI-R (all ps ≥ 0.441).
Brain volumes
A series of 2 × 2 ANCOVA analyses, with supratentorial, cortical, white matter, and subcortical volumes as dependent variables, sex and diagnosis as fixed factors, and age as a covariate revealed a significant main effect of sex on all these measures (all
ps < 0.001) but not diagnosis (all
ps ≥ 0.352) or their interaction (all
ps ≥ 0.507). The main effect of sex was driven by significantly smaller supratentorial (
F = 63.559,
p < 0.001), cortical (
F = 44.379,
p < 0.001), white matter (
F = 52.145,
p < 0.001), and subcortical (
F = 51.954,
p < 0.001) volumes in females, compared to males (Table
2). After correcting for differences in the supratentorial volume, sex differences in the cortical (
p = 0.353), white matter (
p = 0.571), and subcortical (
p = 0.224) volumes were not significant, suggesting that the observed sex-related differences were driven by differences in supratentorial volume. To account for the observed sex-related scaling in brain volumes, we corrected for cortical volume in subsequent analyses of local cortical volume and gyrification.
To assess whether cortical thickness measures also had to be corrected for a sex-related scaling effect, we conducted 2 × 2 ANCOVA analyses on mean cortical thickness for each hemisphere, which did not reveal any significant main effects of sex (left: p = 0.221, F = 1.510; right: p = 0.152, F = 2.069), diagnosis (left: p = 0.355, F = 0.858; right: p = 0.596, F = 0.281), or their interaction (left: p = 0.649, F = 0.207; right: p = 0.852, F = 0.035). We therefore did not introduce any additional covariates in the cortical thickness analyses.
Local cortical volume, thickness, and gyrification
Vertex-wise analyses of local cortical volume showed a significant main effect of sex, but not diagnosis or their interaction. The main effect of sex was observed in homologous regions of the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTG) extending to the planum temporale (PT). For both clusters, we verified that the main effect of sex remained significant after including site as a covariate in the model. We also verified that the results were not altered when taking full scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) into account. Females had larger cortical volumes in the right (5.95 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.003, effect size = 0.347) as well as the left pSTG/PT clusters (8.3 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.0001, effect size = 0.307). Post-hoc analyses demonstrated that the greater pSTG/PT cortical volume in females compared to males was significant in ASD (left:
F = 21.934,
p < 0.001; right:
F = 10.315,
p = 0.002) as well as TD (left:
F = 8.981,
p = 0.003; right:
F = 15.561,
p < 0.001) groups (Fig.
1a).
Cortical thickness analyses revealed no significant effects of sex, diagnosis, or sex-by-diagnosis interaction.
For local cortical gyrification (
lGI), there was a significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction, but no main effects of sex or diagnosis. The significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction was observed in one cluster that extended from the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (7.99 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.004, effect size = 0.253; see Fig.
2a). We verified that the sex-by-diagnosis interaction remained significant in this cluster after including site as a covariate in the model. We also verified that the results remained unchanged when taking FSIQ into account. Post-hoc analysis revealed that among the four groups examined, after correction for volumetric differences, males with ASD had the lowest
lGI while females with ASD had the highest
lGI values, in the vmPFC/OFC.
To further assess the relevance of this vmPFC/OFC cluster, we performed additional whole-brain analyses to examine the effect of sex within the ASD group (ASD M
vs ASD F), and the effect of diagnosis within each sex group (ASD M
vs TD M; and ASD F
vs TD F) on vertex-wise measurements of gyrification. Results of these whole-brain analyses were consistent with the results from the vertex-wise analysis, namely, males with ASD, compared to females with ASD, had lower
lGI within a vertex-level cluster encompassing the vmPFC/OFC regions (19.23 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.0001) (see Additional file
2: Figure S1a). Additionally, another cluster showed lower
lGI in the homologous left OFC region in males with ASD compared to females with ASD (6.95 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.0016). Furthermore, consistent with the results of the vertex-wise
lGI analysis, a cluster spanning the vmPFC/OFC showed lower gyrification in males with ASD, compared to TD males (7.04 cm
2, cluster-wise
p = 0.0022; see Additional file
2: Figure S1b). No cortical regions exhibited lower or higher gyrification in females with ASD compared to TD females (see Additional file
2: Figure S1c).
Taken together, our results from local gyrification analysis point to atypical sex differences in the vmPFC/OFC, mainly driven by a lGI reduction in males with ASD.
Stability analyses
Given the large individual differences in the ASD phenotype, we next investigated whether the observed clusters of sex differences in cerebral morphometry depend on sample size. For this purpose, we performed a bootstrap procedure, sampling different sized subsets from the full cohort of 210 participants. We explored sample sizes ranging from 15 to 50 individuals from each of the four groups, generating 500 random samples for each. With each sample, vertex-wise statistical analyses similar to those above were performed, to assess the significance of main effect of sex on cortical volume and sex-by-diagnosis interaction on local gyrification. These simulation analyses used a statistical threshold of p < 0.05, and results were aggregated across subsamples. The result of this bootstrap subsampling analysis yielded a cortical map with a frequency of observing a significant result for each vertex for each simulated sample size.
Analysis of all the individual cortical maps for the sex-by-diagnosis interaction revealed that, except the vertices in the right vmPFC/OFC region, no other cortical vertex survived statistical threshold (p < 0.05, corrected) in more than 10 % of the simulated samples, for any of the sample sizes studied (15 to 50, in increments of 5). For the main effect of sex, only one other small cluster in addition to the vertices in the bilateral STG region showed significance at p < 0.05 (corrected) in more than 10 % of simulated subsamples: a cluster in the right occipital pole showed a significant effect of sex in 12.4, 15.4, and 29 % of the simulated subsamples for sample sizes of 40, 45, and 50 participants respectively in each of the four groups. Of note, this small cluster was not significant in the final sample size of 210 participants, even at the threshold of p < 0.05 (corrected).
We next examined the effect of sample size in the clusters that demonstrated a significant main effect of sex and sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the full dataset. For both the main effect of sex and the sex-by-diagnosis interaction, a dramatic drop in the likelihood to detect these significant clusters was observed as the sample size decreased (Figs.
1b and
2b). For instance, with 30 individuals per group (total
n = 120), the vmPFC/OFC cluster that showed a significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the full sample survived statistical correction in only ~50 % of the bootstrapped subsamples (Fig.
2b). For the same sample size, bootstrapping analyses revealed that the main effect of sex in the bilateral pSTG/PT clusters was found in less than 60 and 40 % of the subsamples respectively (Fig.
2b). These stability analyses demonstrate that a sufficiently large sample size is required to identify the effects we report.
Post-hoc power analyses
Finally, we conducted a posteriori power analyses using published algorithms [
57] to compute the achieved power based on the sample size and effect size. These analyses yielded a power of 0.779 for the sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the right vmPFC/OFC, 0.930 for the left pSTG/PT cluster that showed a main effect of sex, and 0.977 for its right counterpart. The relationship between achieved power and sample size for the effect sizes observed in this study is plotted in Figs.
1c and
2c. Given an effect size of 0.253, achieving a power of 0.8 in the cluster of significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction would require a few more individuals than we had available: 55 individuals per group. For the main effect of sex however, power analyses revealed that the left cluster would reach a power of 0.8 with ~38 individuals per group (total
n = 151), and the right cluster with 30 individuals per group (total
n = 120). As only one study to date achieved a sample of 30 females with ASD with a total sample size of 120, the result of the stability and power analyses suggests that all previous studies examining sex differences in cerebral morphometry in ASD were underpowered.
Discussion
To our knowledge, this study is the largest of its kind to examine sex differences in brain anatomy in ASD. We used a surface-based morphometric approach for a more accurate characterization of the location and nature of anatomical differences between the ASD and TD groups, focusing on both main effects of sex which identifies common brain areas that show sex differences, as well as sex-by-diagnosis interaction which identifies brain areas where the two groups diverge in their pattern of sex differences. We found that some aspects of typical sex differences in brain structure are preserved in ASD, while others are not. We identified clusters of preserved and altered sex differences encompassing cortical regions involved in language and social communication, two core processes affected in the disorder. The anatomical localization of these clusters might help shed light on neurobiological mechanisms leading to autistic symptoms that are shared in males and females, as well as those that are sex-specific.
Neurotypical sex differences, characterized by larger volume in females compared to males in the posterior superior temporal cortex/planum temporale (pSTG/PT), were preserved in individuals with ASD. This suggests that sex differences in language acquisition [
58,
59] and language processing [
60‐
63] systems of the brain that are commonly reported in typically developing individuals might also be observed in individuals with autism. Preserved sex differences in cortical areas responsible for language processing also suggest that the mechanisms leading to language difficulties in ASD do not differ between affected males and females. In contrast, atypical sex-specific alterations of gyrification patterns were found in the orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex in individuals with ASD, with reduced gyrification observed in affected males only. Based on previous reports that
lGI changes little with development [
64], this pattern of altered gyrification points to early abnormal development of the orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex in males with ASD and provides a sex-specific biological substrate in a cortical region that forms part of the “social brain” [
65,
40].
Preserved sex differences in the temporal cortex in ASD
A main effect of sex was observed in both groups, with larger pSTG/PT cortical volume in females relative to males. In these clusters, we did not observe any significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction, rather we found a similar pattern of relative volumetric increase in both TD females and females with ASD compared to TD males and males with ASD. This finding suggests that one of the brain structures that is most typically related to a core symptom of ASD, namely language difficulties, does not show any sex-specific differences.
In typically developing individuals, many studies have reported a relatively enlarged superior temporal gyrus (STG) in females compared to males [
66‐
69]. A large body of literature relates sex differences in the anatomy and function of perisylvian structures (inferior frontal and superior temporal cortex, along with planum temporale) to differences in various aspects of language processing, including semantic [
61], phonological [
63,
62], and narrative processing [
60]. In addition to these functional processing differences, language acquisition appears to follow a sex-specific trajectory: typically developing girls have been shown to mature more rapidly than boys in specific language skills including early communicative gestures, and expressive language [
58]. These sex differences have been shown to persist until later in childhood [
59] but tend to fade by adulthood [
70].
In individuals with ASD, studies including predominantly or only males have shown differences in STG structure [
71,
72] and in STG activation during speech processing [
73]. Inter-individual variations in STG volume [
71] and in trajectories of volumetric STG growth [
72] were further related to history of language delay in males with ASD. Future studies are required to better understand the functional significance of preserved sex differences in the STG. In the meantime, based on extant functional imaging data, we suggest that our findings may reflect sex differences in language acquisition and processing in individuals with ASD. Although quantitative studies measuring sex differences in language and communication skills have been inconsistent so far [
74‐
76], some clinical studies suggest that girls with ASD acquire language skills faster than their male peers. For instance, girls with higher IQ tend to be diagnosed later than males, as their superior language skills during their first years of life might mask autistic symptoms [
77,
78,
74]. Also, a study using retrospective parent reports has suggested that, at the age of 4 years old, girls with ASD present less severe communication difficulties compared to affected boys [
79]. These studies suggest that the sex differences in language and communication seen in typical development, with faster acquisition of language and better communication skills in girls, might be relatively preserved in ASD. Future studies including more fine-grained measures of language skills and history of language development are required to better understand if preserved sex differences in pSTG/PT cortical volumes relates to sex-related differences in trajectories of language acquisition in young children with ASD.
Altered sex differences in the ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex in ASD
We detected one robust cluster of atypical sex differences in ASD, characterized by a reduction in local gyrification of the right vmPFC/OFC region in males with ASD compared to the other three groups (Fig.
2 and Additional file
2: Figure S1). Altered sulcal patterns of the OFC region in males with ASD are consistent with the recent study by Watanabe and colleagues [
80], who observed differences in the distribution of the orbitofrontal sulcal subtypes in high-functioning adult males with ASD compared to TD. The vmPFC/OFC region is known to play a role in mentalizing and self-reflection [
81], affective theory of mind [
82], emotion recognition [
83], and social motivation [
84]. Also, a recent eye-tracking study suggests that the vmPFC/OFC region is critical in identifying socially salient stimuli [
85]: patients who underwent neurosurgery for vmPFC/OFC lesions demonstrate decreased fixation to the eyes region. A selective disruption of the vmPFC/OFC cortical structure in males might provide a biological substrate for reduced processing of social saliency [
86,
87].
Functional neuroimaging studies, predominately with male participants, have shown altered function of the vmPFC/OFC region. First, task-based fMRI studies have reported altered activity of the vmPFC/OFC in predominantly male samples during theory of mind [
88] and reward processing [
89] including social reward [
90], tasks. Second, resting state fMRI studies have identified altered connectivity in anterior nodes of the default-mode network [
91‐
93,
40], which overlap with the vmPFC/OFC cluster identified in this study. Finally, oxytocin administration has been shown to increase both OFC activity and orientation to social stimuli in a sample composed of 18 boys and 3 girls with ASD [
94]. The fact that all these studies were conducted in samples composed mostly or entirely of affected males suggests altered function of the vmPFC/OFC in males with ASD but leaves the question of potential functional alterations of this region in affected females unanswered. Further research is needed to investigate whether the function of the vmPFC/OFC differs in females with ASD. Extant reports suggest that females with ASD have a greater desire to interact with others, tend to imitate their peers more, and develop better compensatory strategies to mask their difficulties relative to males (reviewed in [
9]). Taken together, our findings of a sex-specific disruption of cortical development in the vmPFC/OFC provides a neuroanatomical template for further studies of sex differences in social cognition in males and females with ASD.
Developmental origins of the cortical sex differences
The surface-based morphometry method used here allowed for a better characterization of the nature of the cortical changes in ASD than previous studies. While the developmental mechanisms leading to altered cortical volume are not well understood, they are known to be related to complex age-dependent cortical maturation and aging processes [
26,
27,
95]. Investigating the developmental origins of sex differences in cortical thickness in ASD will require careful analysis of the trajectory of developmental changes from early infancy. Our sample size, despite being the largest of its kind studied to date, did not allow us to examine sex differences in trajectories of cortical changes with age. Identifying sex differences in cortical thickness trajectories in typically developing individuals requires much larger sample sizes and a longitudinal design [
96], and this may be true of ASD as well. An important question for future research is whether there are differences in the developmental trajectories of sex differences in STG regions identified in the present study.
In contrast, there is a large body of literature supporting the notion that modified gyrification results from disruptions early in cortical development [
24,
25,
23,
22]. Based on the extant data, we suggest that the significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction in gyrification, with selectively reduced gyrification in the vmPFC/OFC of males with ASD, may have its origins in early development. The process of cortical folding starts at 16 weeks post-conception and ends within the first few months of life [
64]. Altered patterns of cortical folding are thus assumed to result from adverse events that occur during this period. For instance, premature birth [
24,
25], obstetric complications [
23], or cardiac surgery during the first months of life [
22] are known to affect gyrification. Another prenatal factor that is known to shape the brain of developing fetuses is the level of fetal testosterone [
97]. In a brain imaging study of children aged 8 to 11 years, Lombardo and colleagues assessed how variations in levels of fetal testosterone predicted local gray matter volume. Although their study did not distinguish between volume, gyrification, and thickness, they noted that increased fetal testosterone was related to patterns of both increased and decreased gray matter. In particular, the OFC showed a negative correlation between fetal testosterone level and gray matter volume. In light of the recent evidence that fetal steroidogenic activity is elevated in male children who will develop autism later on [
7], our finding of altered vmPFC/OFC gyrification in males with ASD supports the idea that elevated fetal testosterone in males with ASD may influence early development of the brain in utero.
Stability and power analysis
We took advantage of the largest dataset to date provided by the ABIDE Consortium to gain information about the minimal sample size required to observe robust statistical sex differences. Structural imaging studies in ASD have been characterized by a strikingly poor rate of replication, requiring meta-analyses of multiple studies to obtain a clearer picture of the neuroanatomical phenotype in ASD [
98,
99,
14]. As such, results based on small samples of affected females might be biased by high inter-individual variability and low power, thereby resulting in inconsistent findings of sex differences in previous studies [
12,
13,
11,
10]. To test the hypothesis that sample size has a major impact on the likelihood to observe significant results, we leveraged the large ABIDE dataset to randomly simulate different cohorts with sample sizes ranging from 15 to 50 females with ASD, with their matched counterparts, for a total of 60 to 200 participants. The results of the bootstrap analysis demonstrated that the likelihood of observing significant sex-by-diagnosis interactions, and to a lesser extent for observing a main effect of sex, drastically dropped with decreasing sample size. For instance, with a sample of 30 females with ASD (total
n = 120), a significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction was only captured in 50 % of the simulated subsamples. The likelihood of observing a sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the vmPFC/OFC cluster increased to 60 % with a sample of 35 females (total
n = 140), and 90 % for a sample of 45 females with ASD (total
n = 180). We also investigated this issue by computing post-hoc power based on the estimated effect size identified in our significant clusters. This analysis confirmed that samples of 30 to 55 females with ASD (total
n = 120–220) are required to observe a significant main effect of sex as well as a sex-by-diagnosis interaction in the same clusters with a power of at least 0.8. Taken together, the simulation analysis and the power computation supports the view that identifying robust and reproducible findings probably requires samples of females with ASD much larger than previously studied.
Limitations
One of the limitations of our study is that the ABIDE cohort includes mainly individuals with high-functioning ASD (IQ range 61–147). Given the difficulty of acquiring MRIs from lower-functioning children and adolescents, the inclusion of only high-functioning affected individuals is a common limitation of imaging studies in ASD. A second limitation is that we did not have access to fine-grained measures of the clinical and cognitive phenotypes of the individuals with ASD included in the ABIDE cohort. With the available measures, the groups of males and females with ASD did not differ on the severity of autistic symptoms in social interactions, communication, or RRB, limiting our ability to assess whether the observed sex-by-diagnosis interaction has an impact on the observed behavioral phenotype. Finally, to achieve a sample size of 53 females with ASD, we had to merge cerebral MRI acquired at different sites with varying scanning parameters. To minimize the impact of the different sites on quality, we conducted thorough quality control, and matched all the females individually for age and site by “quartet”. Given the dearth of studies examining females with ASD to date, we suggest that our study offers a template for directing future studies examining sex differences in the disorder.
Acknowledgements
M.S. is supported by a fellowship from the Swiss National Foundation of Science (#145760). A.P. is supported by a fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation (SPO 116465). K.S. is supported by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. This research was supported by grants from the NIH (MH084164) and the Simons Foundation for Autism Research. The ABIDE dataset results from a sharing initiative from 17 international sites, with anonymized data being hosted by the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI). Funding sources for each individual sites are provided on the official ABIDE website (http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/abide/). The following local Institutional Review Boards (IRB) accepted the study protocol in each individual site: the Human Subjects Protection committee of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the IRB of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the IRB of the John Hopkins University for data collected at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI), the IRB of the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (Max_Mun), the IRB of the School of Medicine of New York University for the New York University Langone Medical Center (NYU), the Hartford Hospital Institution Review Committee for the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital (OLIN), the IRB of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the local Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the University of Leuven (Leuven), the IRB of the University of Michigan (UM), the IRB of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), and the Human Investigation Committee of the Yale University (Yale). Efforts leading to the constitution of the ABIDE dataset and its sharing was primarily supported through funds to Adriana Di Martino (NIMH K23MH087770 and the Leon Levy Foundation) and funds to Michael P. Milham and the INDI team (gifts from Joseph P. Healy and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to the Child Mind Institute, as well as by an NIMH award R03MH096321).
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
MS, JK, and VM designed the study. MS carried out the image processing. MS and JK conducted the statistical analyses. MS drafted the manuscript. All authors (MS, JK, AP, KS, and VM) contributed to the interpretation of the results and to revisions and rewriting of the initial manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.