Gender differences in brain response to infant emotional faces: New research shows brains of women and men reacted differently to infants’ faces, and these differential areas are in facial processing, attention, and empathetic networks.

Theres a lot of debate in the comments section over nature versus nurture, innate or learnt traits.

Some seem to insist that human behaviors are entirely learnt, that a new born babies' mind is a tabula rasa, ready to be human.

This opinion has real world negative consequences.

My friends had their children taken into care as the father is autistic, and their mother was suspected to be on the autism spectrum as well, because social workers thought their children would copy their autistic behaviors and become autistic themselves.

Again and again, their parents’ disability has been seen as the reason for the children’s atypical behaviour.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/it-s-not-a-crime-for-a-disabled-person-to-have-a-child-1.56308

It took them nearly a year to get their children back after social workers finally begrudgingly accepted that autism isn't lernt, it's innate and predominantly genetic. All four of their children are now diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum.

This case isn't unique, but they are getting rarer now.

As for the gender ratio in autism spectrum disorder, it is about 3:1 male to female, taking into account biases and difficulty spotting females on the autism spectrum.

Loomes, R., Hull, L. and Mandy, W.P.L., 2017. What is the male-to-female ratio in autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(6), pp.466-474.

/r/science Thread Parent Link - bmcneurosci.biomedcentral.com