Androgyny and atypical sensory sensitivity associated with savant ability: a comparison between Klinefelter syndrome and sexual minorities assigned male at birth

These results suggest a common physiological background among gender dysphoria, synesthesia, savant tendency, and atypical sensory sensitivity. Thus, androgynous features (reduced effects of sex steroids during early development) in males at birth may be partially related to the phenotype commonly observed in individuals with ASD. Based on the present results, we propose that the reduction of sex steroids during early development may lead to atypical neurodevelopment and be involved in the atypicality of external and internal sensory perception, and thus in the atypicality of self-concept integration, through the disruption of oxytocin and the gamma-aminobutyric acid system modulating the neural excitation/inhibition balance.