Some people with autism have an unusually large head. What causes the enlargement? And does it have any bearing on outcome?

Girls with autism are diagnosed 1.5 years later, on average, than boys with the condition, perhaps because they tend to have stronger verbal skills.

Autism may stem from a different — and larger — set of genetic mutations in women than it does in men.

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.

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.

Adults with autism are nearly 50 percent more likely to die in the hospital than their typical peers.

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