title: Sex differences in multisensory speech processing in both typically developing children and those on the autism spectrum.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous work has revealed sizeable deficits in the abilities of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to integrate auditory and visual speech signals, with clear implications for social communication in this population. There is a strong male preponderance in ASD, with approximately four affected males for every female. The presence of sex differences in ASD symptoms suggests a sexual dimorphism in the ASD phenotype, and raises the question of whether this dimorphism extends to ASD traits in the neurotypical population. Here, we investigated possible sexual dimorphism in multisensory speech integration in both ASD and neurotypical individuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed whether males and females differed in their ability to benefit from visual speech when target words were presented under varying levels of signal-to-noise, in samples of neurotypical children and adults, and in children diagnosed with an ASD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD, females (n = 47 and n = 15, respectively) were significantly superior in their ability to recognize words under audiovisual listening conditions compared to males (n = 55 and n = 58, respectively). This sex difference was absent in our sample of neurotypical adults (n = 28 females; n = 28 males).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We propose that the development of audiovisual integration is delayed in male relative to female children, a delay that is also observed in ASD. In neurotypicals, these sex differences disappear in early adulthood when females approach their performance maximum and males "catch up." Our findings underline the importance of considering sex differences in the search for autism endophenotypes and strongly encourage increased efforts to study the underrepresented population of females within ASD.
authors.affiliation: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA ; The Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University Garden City, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Lars A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA ; Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Victor A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Del Bene
authors.affiliation: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA ; The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molholm
authors.affiliation: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA ; Division of Neurocritical Care, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA ; The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Foxe
keywords: ASD; audio-visual; autism spectrum disorder; cross-modal; development; gender; language; speech perception