Evolution Drives Autism and Other Conditions to Occur More Frequently in Boys. Friday 5th March 2021
Evolution Drives Autism and Other Conditions to Occur More Frequently in Boys. Friday 5th March 2021
Actually, that isn’t quite correct. These conditions occur equally but they don’t present the same. For example Rett Syndrome is generally only seen in girls, my son has a Rett Syndrome because it passed to him from me. When a Mecp2 error does occur in a boy it generally can present in all manner of ways. And this can be severe to mild. In girls too, it can present in the awfulest way or much less so. It can present in the syndrome and it can also occur in what I refer to as a Rett disorder, in that possibly only a single symptom of the syndrome may occur. And it all depends upon other genes that each person has that will ultimately determine outcomes.
So there are girls and women out there who have mild issues that look nothing like autism but the mechanism causing autism is the same issue that is causing their particular problem.
Autism and those conditions occurring in the same pathways, also occurred in Neanderthals. They may have been a little different because their childhood development was paced differently, but they most definitely encountered these problems.
Autism presents in boys as an autistic state due to how each persons genetic development dictates. This is why we see same genetic errors in a specific condition yet they do not have the same severity or they have less issue with one symptom and more of another etc.
Each child has their own unique settings developmentally.
And it’s the fine tuning here that makes all the difference. The child with autism who isn’t yet showing any signs of any health problem has a genetic issue that’s sadly about to commence onset and where that child exactly is in their development is of great importance. And of course the other issue is the severity, ie how severe is the impact going to be.
I myself am a very good example. Because of my environment I was very alert and had use of arms from protecting myself from my elder sister. Ordinarily a baby wouldn’t have had some of the development that I did. And so all that movement had laid down memory in arm use. My legs didn’t so they experienced a more typical delay.
Secondly, my syndrome had effected its own ability to cause certain damage. By targeting specific areas of development and slowing them right down, the genetic error can then only affect in a delayed manner. Those girls will often end up walking well but will have other issues related to the delay and generally less medical problems but again it’s in the finest detail of development and so the scope is broad.
So in conclusion, autism looks like autism in so many more boys than girls because of developmental milestones and the difference of those milestones between boys and girls.
Girls and boys develop differently and there are those things that are same but it’s the differences that result in the childhood autism disability affecting so many more boys than girls. XX and XY and all that that entails.
Fiona MacLeod (C)
