Implicit and Explicit Gender-Related Cognition, Gender Dysphoria, Autistic-Like Traits, and Mentalizing: Differences Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Cisgender and Transgender Adults.

Evidence indicates a link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender diversity, yet this intersection remains insufficiently understood. Here, we investigated whether (1) ASD affects gender-related cognition (i.e.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria/Incongruence. A systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.

The suggested overlap between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria/incongruence (GD/GI) has been much disputed. This review showed a relationship between ASD traits and GD feelings in the general population and a high prevalence of GD/GI in ASD. Our meta-analyses revealed that the pooled estimate of the prevalence of ASD diagnoses in GD/GI people was 11% (p < .

Links Between Autistic Traits, Feelings of Gender Dysphoria, and Mentalising Ability: Replication and Extension of Previous Findings from the General Population.

Gender nonconformity is substantially elevated in the autistic population, but the reasons for this are currently unclear. In a recent study, Kallitsounaki and Williams (Kallitsounaki and Williams, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2020; authors 1 and 2 of the current paper) found significant relations between autistic traits and both gender dysphoric feelings and recalled cross-gender behaviour, and between mentalising ability and gender dysphoric feelings. The current study successfully replicated these findings (results were supplemented with Bayesian analyses), in sample of 126 adults.

Mentalising Moderates the Link between Autism Traits and Current Gender Dysphoric Features in Primarily Non-autistic, Cisgender Individuals.

The co-occurrence between autism and gender dysphoria has received much attention recently. We found that, among 101 adults from the general population number of autism traits, as measured using the autism-spectrum quotient was associated significantly with recalled and current gender dysphoric traits. Furthermore, performance on an objective measure of mentalising, such as the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test was associated with current gender dysphoric traits, but most importantly it moderated the relation between number of autism traits and number of current gender dysphoric traits, such that the association was significant only when mentalising ability was relatively low.

A Relation Between Autism Traits and Gender Self-concept: Evidence from Explicit and Implicit Measures.

A link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender identity difficulties has been suggested. In this study, we found that, among adults from the general population (N = 101) ASD traits (measured using the Autism-spectrum Quotient) were associated negatively and significantly with the strength of both explicit gender self-concept (measured using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire) and implicit gender self-concept (measured using an Implicit Association Task). Further analyses showed that a subgroup with high/clinically significant ASD traits showed significantly weaker explicit and implicit gender self-concepts than a subgroup with low ASD traits.

Interoception is Impaired in Children, But Not Adults, with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Interoception (the ability to sense what's going on inside one's body) is considered integral to many higher-order cognitive processes. Some have speculated that impaired interoception may underpin some features of ASD. Yet, in Experiment 1, we found no evidence of a between-group difference in either cardiac or respiratory interoceptive accuracy among 21 adults with ASD and 21 matched controls.