There are clear differences between and some- and there may be protective factors in a female brain.

I think the gold standard is a clinical diagnosis, that an astute clinician interacting with a child, interviewing the parents, talking with teachers makes the diagnosis based on some standard tests and also on clinical impression and skill.

Autism is not a snapshot. It's a life.

There is no question there are differences between male and female brains. They are called sexual dimorphisms and you can point to different anatomical structures.

I think my own bias is that there may be something wrong with the timing and the connectivity between regions rather than pointing to one particular spot in the brain.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by two main components: an inability to interact socially with other people with joint attention to understand other people's thoughts.

In fact, many children come to autism clinics early on with GI/bowel disturbances.