Nerve fiber tracts in the brains of autistic girls appear more fragmented than those of typical girls’. Autistic boys’ brains, meanwhile, look like those of typical boys.

The loss of 21 genes on chromosome 3 may substantially raise the risk of autism.

Two new maps show the entire nervous system of the adult roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

People on the spectrum, and girls and women in particular, are at high risk of suicide; siblings of autistic people are also at heightened risk.

Autistic women show unusually strong connections, and autistic men unusually weak ones, between two brain regions.

Exposure to inflammation in the womb may affect the brain and behavior of males and females differently.

People with autism who harm themselves are more than 30 times as likely as the general population to commit suicide. The risk is especially pronounced among girls and women on the spectrum.

Boys and girls with autism get virtually identical scores on three commonly used diagnostic tests, suggesting that sex doesn’t affect the scores.