Testing the ‘Extreme Female Brain’ Theory of Psychosis

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Full title which couldn't fit in title bar- " Testing the ‘Extreme Female Brain’ Theory of Psychosis in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder with or without Co-Morbid Psychosis "



Abstract
Introduction

Males and females in the general population differ, on average, in their drive for empathizing (higher in females) and systemizing (higher in males). People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a drive for systemizing over empathizing, irrespective of sex, which led to the conceptualisation of ASD as an ‘extreme of the typical male brain’. The opposite cognitive profile, an ‘extreme of the typical female brain’, has been proposed to be linked to conditions such as psychosis and mania/hypomania.
Methods

We compared an empathizing-over-systemizing bias (for short ‘empathizing bias’) in individuals with ASD, who had experienced psychotic illness (N = 64) and who had not (N = 71).
Results

There were overall differences in the distribution of cognitive style. Adults with ASD who had experienced psychosis were more likely to show an empathizing bias than adults with ASD who had no history of psychosis. This was modulated by IQ, and the group-difference was driven mainly by individuals with above-average IQ. In women with ASD and psychosis, the link between mania/hypomania and an empathizing bias was greater than in men with ASD.
Conclusions

The bias for empathizing over systemizing may be linked to the presence of psychosis in people with ASD. Further research is needed in a variety of clinical populations, to understand the role an empathizing bias may play in the development and manifestation of mental illness.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0128102

I don't know about psychosis, which is a quite fuzzy concept in my mind. Depending on the source of information and the description, it sounds like various proportions of anxiety, lack of critical thinking, social difficulty, and hyper-mentalizing.

However, I completely fail to see how mania/hypomania is "extreme female", or somehow opposite of ASD. In these conditions, mood becomes detached from the surroundings, and the sense of self/feeling of control is amplified. I have hypomanic tendencies myself, and I know that it is positively correlated with a visuospatial vs. verbal thinking style (in other words, more hypomanic--and consequently more "grandiose"--correlates with more spatial-minded, and more depressed correlates with more sequential-verbal).

I see the hyper-female thinking style as being hyper-sensitive to the (human) emotional environment, and having a weaker sense of self that is more malleable. In other words, someone who is greatly affected (both positively and negatively) by things like current events, others' perceptions, etc. I suppose some people with schizophrenia have these traits, but I don't think they are central to manic temperament in any way.