title: Strategies to develop putative biomarkers to characterize the female phenotype with autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: Current observational inventories used to diagnose autism spectrum disorders (ASD) apply similar criteria to females and males alike, despite developmental differences between the sexes. Recent work investigating the chronology of diagnosis in ASD has raised the concern that females run the risk of receiving a delayed diagnosis, potentially missing a window of opportunity for early intervention. Here, we retake this issue in the context of the objective measurements of natural behaviors that involve decision-making processes. Within this context, we quantified movement variability in typically developing (TD) individuals and those diagnosed with ASD across different ages. We extracted the latencies of the decision movements and velocity-dependent parameters as the hand movements unfolded for two movement segments within the reach: movements intended toward the target and withdrawing movements that spontaneously, without instruction, occurred incidentally. The stochastic signatures of the movement decision latencies and the percent of time to maximum speed differed between males and females with ASD. This feature was also observed in the empirically estimated probability distributions of the maximum speed values, independent of limb size. Females with ASD showed different dispersion than males with ASD. The distinctions found for females with ASD were better appreciated compared with those of TD females. In light of these results, behavioral assessment of autistic traits in females should be performed relative to TD females to increase the chance of detection.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey;
authors.forename: Elizabeth B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Isenhower
authors.forename: Polina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yanovich
authors.forename: Gwendolyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rehrig
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stigler
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nurnberger
authors.forename: Jorge V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: José
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010641:Phenotype; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: autism; decision-making; kinesthetic input; movement decision time; sex differences; stochastic signatures