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=== Critical review === === Critical review ===
A book review of Baron-Cohen's ''The Essential Difference'', published in the journal ''Nature'', wrote that "The idea that males are more interested in systemizing than females merits serious consideration&nbsp;...&nbsp;It is unquestionably a novel and fascinating idea that seems likely to generate a rich empirical body of literature as its properties are tested. The second part of the theory—that females are more empathic than males—is more problematic&nbsp;...&nbsp;Regardless of the ultimate answer, this book inspires the reader to reconsider traditional assumptions about the skills of each sex."<ref name=Buchen/> A book review of Baron-Cohen's ''The Essential Difference'', published in the journal ''Nature'', wrote that "The idea that males are more interested in systemizing than females merits serious consideration&nbsp;...&nbsp;It is unquestionably a novel and fascinating idea that seems likely to generate a rich empirical body of literature as its properties are tested. The second part of the theory—that females are more empathic than males—is more problematic&nbsp;...&nbsp;Regardless of the ultimate answer, this book inspires the reader to reconsider traditional assumptions about the skills of each sex."<ref name=Benenson>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/424132b|title=Sex on the brain|year=2003|last1=Benenson|first1=Joyce F.|journal=Nature|volume=424|issue=6945|pages=132}}</ref>


A review in ''New Scientist'' wrote that "Baron-Cohen helpfully sums up his thesis on page one of'' The Essential Difference'': 'The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.' Clearly, this takes some standing up, and by the end he has only partly succeeded. More convincing is his assertion that autism is a result of the extreme male brain. A thought-provoking take on the minds of men and women."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17823965.900-gender-on-the-brain.html |title= Gender on the brain |date= 2003-05-24 |author= Bond, Michael |work = New Scientist |subscription=yes}}</ref> A review in ''New Scientist'' wrote that "Baron-Cohen helpfully sums up his thesis on page one of'' The Essential Difference'': 'The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.' Clearly, this takes some standing up, and by the end he has only partly succeeded. More convincing is his assertion that autism is a result of the extreme male brain. A thought-provoking take on the minds of men and women."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17823965.900-gender-on-the-brain.html |title= Gender on the brain |date= 2003-05-24 |author= Bond, Michael |work = New Scientist |subscription=yes}}</ref>
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A review in ''The Spectator'' argues that "Autism is coming in from the cold, and the Cambridge academic and therapist Simon Baron-Cohen has made a major contribution to its rehabilitation. The theory that Baron-Cohen has developed and defended over several years is that autism is a kind of 'mindblindness'&nbsp;...&nbsp;The management of the higher functioning forms of autism is a major social problem, to which Baron-Cohen has made a perceptive, magisterial and compelling contribution in this book."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/14th-june-2003/67/what-little-boys-and-girls-are-made-of |title= What little boys and girls are made of | author= Lawson-Tancred, Hugh |date= 2003-06-14 |page= 67|accessdate= 2013-12-29}}</ref> A review in ''The Spectator'' argues that "Autism is coming in from the cold, and the Cambridge academic and therapist Simon Baron-Cohen has made a major contribution to its rehabilitation. The theory that Baron-Cohen has developed and defended over several years is that autism is a kind of 'mindblindness'&nbsp;...&nbsp;The management of the higher functioning forms of autism is a major social problem, to which Baron-Cohen has made a perceptive, magisterial and compelling contribution in this book."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/14th-june-2003/67/what-little-boys-and-girls-are-made-of |title= What little boys and girls are made of | author= Lawson-Tancred, Hugh |date= 2003-06-14 |page= 67|accessdate= 2013-12-29}}</ref>


A review in ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences'', characterized ''The Essential Difference'' as "very disappointing" with a "superficial notion of intelligence", concluding that Baron-Cohen's major claims about mind-blindness and systemizing–empathizing are "at best, dubious".<ref name= Levy> {{cite journal |author= Levy, Neil |journal= Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences |year= 2004 |volume= 3 |issue= 3 |pages= 315–24 |title= Book review: Understanding blindness |url= http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FB%3APHEN.0000049328.20506.a1?LI=true |format= subscription required}}</ref> A review in ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences'', characterized ''The Essential Difference'' as "very disappointing" with a "superficial notion of intelligence", concluding that Baron-Cohen's major claims about mind-blindness and systemizing–empathizing are "at best, dubious".<ref name= Levy> {{cite journal |author= Levy, Neil |journal= Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences |year= 2004 |volume= 3 |issue= 3 |pages= 315–24 |title= Book review: Understanding blindness |url= http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FB%3APHEN.0000049328.20506.a1?LI=true |format= subscription required |doi= 10.1023/B:PHEN.0000049328.20506.a1}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==

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Simon Baron-Cohen
BornLondon, England
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipBritish and Canadian
Alma materNew College, Oxford
King's College London
University College London
Known forAutism research
AwardsKanner-Asperger Medal 2013 (WGAS)
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychiatry
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Doctoral advisorUta Frith

Simon Baron-Cohen FBA is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College. He is best known for his work on autism, including the theory that autism involves degrees of mind-blindness (or delays in the development of theory of mind, known as TOM) and his later theory that autism is an extreme form of what he calls the "male brain", which involved a re-conceptualisation of typical psychological sex differences in terms of empathizing–systemizing theory.

Education

Baron-Cohen completed a BA in Human Sciences at New College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. He did his PhD in Psychology at University College London under the supervision of Professor Uta Frith.

Professional

According to Time magazine, Baron-Cohen worked in the 1980s in a program for autistic children; "by the time he received his Ph.D. ...  had begun pioneering research into the specific kind of social deficit typical of autistic kids. He showed that such children had difficulty developing a 'theory of mind': the ability to perceive that other people have thoughts, perceptions and feelings different from their own."

Autism

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Baron-Cohen was lead author of the first study of children with autism and delays in the development of a theory of mind. His doctoral research was in collaboration with his supervisor Uta Frith. Baron-Cohen's research over the subsequent 10 years provided much of the evidence for the ToM deficit hypothesis, culminating in three edited anthologies (Understanding Other Minds, 1993, 2000, 2013). His research group linked the origins of the ToM deficit to joint attention (Brit J. Dev Psychol, 1987) and proposed that absence of joint attention at 18 months is a predictor of later autism.

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Based on these and other findings, he proposed a model of the development of 'mindreading' in the monograph 'Mindblindness' (1995, MIT Press). In the late 1990s Baron-Cohen developed the hypothesis that typical sex differences may provide a neurobiological and psychological understanding of autism (the empathizing–systemizing theory). The theory proposes that autism is an extreme of the male brain. This led to him situating ToM within the broader domain of empathy, and to the development of a new construct (systemizing).

He developed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ).. Critics contest the methods Baron-Cohen used to test for correlations between scientific aptitude and autistic traits. Neuroscientist Francesca Happé has questioned whether questionnaires Baron-Cohen uses produce objective enough results to be useful, and psychologist Uta Frith has said that "rigorous studies are still missing".

In 2008, Baron-Cohen confirmed the Asperger syndrome diagnosis of Gary McKinnon, the British computer hacker accused of breaking into United States military and NASA computer networks.

Foetal testosterone research

Baron-Cohen launched the Cambridge Longitudinal Foetal Testosterone Project in the late 1990s, a research program following children of mothers who had amniocentesis to study the effects of individual differences in foetal testosterone (FT) on later child development. With Mike Lombardo he conducted the first study in humans of where FT influences grey matter in the brain.

Special education

Baron-Cohen developed the Mindreading software for special education and The Transporters, an animation series to teach children with autism to recognise and understand emotions, both of which were nominated for awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Organizations

Baron-Cohen is co-editor in chief of the journal Molecular Autism and was the 2012 Chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline Development Group for adults with autism. He is a National Health Service (NHS) Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service (CLASS) clinic, which he established in 1999 to pioneer diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in adults. Baron-Cohen was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Section for Psychology in 2007,and was Vice President of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) for 2009–11. He is a Vice President of the National Autistic Society (UK). He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the British Academy, and the Association for Psychological Science.

Media

In 2008 Baron-Cohen appeared on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3. In 2011 Time magazine featured Baron-Cohen's 'assortative mating' theory of autism, which was also covered in Scientific American in 2012. Time magazine called Baron-Cohen a "kind of pop-science hero" with a "willingness to go out on a limb", saying his "flair for such creative if controversial theories has brought him worldwide renown". The article also said that Baron-Cohen "wandered into fraught territory" with his book The Essential Difference, and "ended up on the wrong side of the debate on science and sex differences"; and that his views on systemizing traits had "earned him the ire of some parents of autistic children, who complain that he underestimates their families' suffering". Time said that while research from Washington University in St. Louis, MO did not support the assortive mating theory, a survey of children in the Netherlands had "breathed new life" into Baron-Cohen's theory. Baron-Cohen argues that high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome can lead to talent; he explored this in a talk at the Wired 2012 Conference. In 2012 he also presented a TEDx talk on the causes of cruelty at Parliament UK entitled "The erosion of empathy". Baron-Cohen appeared in the television documentary Brainman in which he diagnosed Daniel Tammet (who has extreme memory) with both synaesthesia and Asperger syndrome.

Personal life and awards

Baron-Cohen was awarded the Spearman Medal from The British Psychological Society (BPS), the McAndless Award from the American Psychological Association, the 1993 May Davidson Award for Clinical Psychology from the BPS, and the Presidents Award from the BPS. He was awarded the Kanner-Asperger Medal in 2013 by the WGAS (Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Autismus-Spektrum) as a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to autism research internationally.

Baron-Cohen's cousin is Sacha Baron Cohen.

Selected publications

Baron-Cohen's single-authored books:

  • Baron-Cohen, S (1995) Mindblindness: an essay on autism and theory of mind. MIT Press/Bradford Books.
  • Baron-Cohen, S (2003) The Essential Difference: men, women and the extreme male brain. Penguin/Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-7139-9671-5
  • Baron-Cohen, S (2008) Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts. OUP.
  • Baron-Cohen, S (2011) Zero Degrees of Empathy: A new theory of human cruelty. Penguin/Allen Lane. This appears under a different title in the US:
  • Baron-Cohen, S (2011) The Science of Evil: On empathy and the origins of human cruelty. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02353-0

His multi-authored and edited books include:

  • Baron-Cohen, S, and Bolton, P, (1993) Autism: the facts. Oxford University Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Tager-Flusberg, H, and Cohen, D.J. (eds,) (1993) Understanding other minds: perspectives from autism. Oxford University Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, & Harrison, J, (eds: 1997) Synaesthesia: classic and contemporary readings. Blackwells.
  • Baron-Cohen S, ed. (1997). The maladapted mind: classic readings in evolutionary psychopathology. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press/Taylor Francis Group. ISBN 0-86377-460-1. Retrieved 21 January 2011Template:Inconsistent citations{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Howlin, P, Baron-Cohen, S, Hadwin, J, & Swettenham, J, (1999). Teaching children with autism to mind-read. Wiley.
  • Robertson, M, & Baron-Cohen, S, (1998) Tourette Syndrome: The facts. Oxford University Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Tager-Flusberg, H, & Cohen, D, (eds. 2000). Understanding other minds: perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience. Oxford University Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, S & Wheelwright, S, (2004) An exact mind. Jessica Kingsley Ltd. Artwork by Peter Myers.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Lutchmaya, S, & Knickmeyer, R, (2005) Prenatal testosterone in mind: Studies of amniotic fluid. MIT Press/Bradford Books.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Tager-Flusberg, H, and Cohen, D.J. (eds,) (2007) Understanding other minds: perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience – 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Tager-Flusberg, H, and Lombardo, M.V. (eds) (2013) Understanding other minds: perspectives from social cognitive neuroscience – 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press.
  • Hadwin, J, Howlin, P, & Baron-Cohen, S, (2008) Teaching children with autism to mindread: a handbook. Wiley.

Selected Journal Articles:

  • Nunn, J, Gregory, L, Morris, R, Brammer, M, Bullmore, E, Harrison, J, Williams, S, Baron-Cohen, S, and Gray, J, (2002) Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synaesthesia: activation of colour vision area V4/V8 by spoken words. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 371-375.
  • Baron-Cohen, S, Knickmeyer, R, & Belmonte, M (2005) Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism. Science, 310, 819-823.

Critical review

A book review of Baron-Cohen's The Essential Difference, published in the journal Nature, wrote that "The idea that males are more interested in systemizing than females merits serious consideration ... It is unquestionably a novel and fascinating idea that seems likely to generate a rich empirical body of literature as its properties are tested. The second part of the theory—that females are more empathic than males—is more problematic ... Regardless of the ultimate answer, this book inspires the reader to reconsider traditional assumptions about the skills of each sex."

A review in New Scientist wrote that "Baron-Cohen helpfully sums up his thesis on page one of The Essential Difference: 'The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.' Clearly, this takes some standing up, and by the end he has only partly succeeded. More convincing is his assertion that autism is a result of the extreme male brain. A thought-provoking take on the minds of men and women."

A review in The Spectator argues that "Autism is coming in from the cold, and the Cambridge academic and therapist Simon Baron-Cohen has made a major contribution to its rehabilitation. The theory that Baron-Cohen has developed and defended over several years is that autism is a kind of 'mindblindness' ... The management of the higher functioning forms of autism is a major social problem, to which Baron-Cohen has made a perceptive, magisterial and compelling contribution in this book."

A review in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, characterized The Essential Difference as "very disappointing" with a "superficial notion of intelligence", concluding that Baron-Cohen's major claims about mind-blindness and systemizing–empathizing are "at best, dubious".

See also

References

  1. ^ "Awardees". Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Autismus-Spektrum (WGAS). Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  2. ^ "Seven Cambridge academics elected as Fellows of The British Academy". Cambridge University. 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  3. ^ "ARC people: Professor Simon Baron-Cohen". Autism Research Center, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  4. "ARC researchers, collaborators and staff". Autism Research Center, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  5. ^ Bishop DV (2008). "Forty years on: Uta Frith's contribution to research on autism and dyslexia, 1966-2006". Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 61 (1): 16–26. doi:10.1080/17470210701508665. PMC 2409181. PMID 18038335. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Warner, Judith (2011-08-29). "Autism's lone wolf". Time. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  7. ^ Saxe, Rebecca (2008-05-09). "1985 paper on the theory of mind". SFARI: Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  8. Baron-Cohen S, Leslie AM, Frith U (1985). "Does the autistic child have a 'theory of mind'?" (PDF). Cognition. 21 (1): 37–46. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8. PMID 2934210.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19338503
  10. Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Amazon.co.uk: Simon Baron-Cohen, Helen Tager-Flusberg, Donald Cohen: Books
  11. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199692972.do
  12. Why are autism spectrum conditions more prevalent ... [PLoS Biol. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI
  13. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12039606
  14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11439754
  15. Buchen L (2011). "Scientists and autism: When geeks meet". Nature. 479 (7371): 25–7. doi:10.1038/479025a. PMID 22051657. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  16. "Profile: Gary McKinnon". BBC News. 2012-12-14. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  17. Prenatal Testosterone in Mind | The MIT Press
  18. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23588379
  19. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15113628
  20. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22238103
  21. "Mind Reading: Frequently Asked Questions: Who developed it?". Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  22. The Transporters - Research from Autism Research Centre
  23. "BAFTA nomination for university autism film" (Press release). University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  24. "New Media Production" (Press release). RGB Research Limited. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  25. "Molecular Autism: brain, cognition and behavior". BioMed Central Ltd. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  26. "Autism: recognition, referral, diagnosis and management of adults on the autism spectrum". National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  27. http://www.cpft.nhs.uk/services/class-clinic.htm
  28. http://www.clahrc-cp.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes-2/child-theme/adult-autism-clinical-pathways
  29. http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/articles/very_late_diagnosis_of_asperger_syndrome
  30. http://www.bu.edu/autism/2011/10/03/helen-tager-flusberg-newly-elected-president-of-insar/
  31. "Vice presidents". National Autistic Society. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  32. "Chartered Psychologist emphasises the importance of empathy". The British Psychological Society. 2011-04-28. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  33. "Reflecting on a lifetime of achievement: Uta Frith". Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  34. "Private Passions". BBC. 2008-04-13. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  35. Baron-Cohen, Simon (2012-11-09). "Are geeky couples more likely to have kids with autism?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  36. Steadman, Ian. "Watch Simon Baron-Cohen's full Wired 2012 talk about autism". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  37. "Simon Baron-Cohen: The erosion of empathy". TED Conferences LLC. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  38. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0447877/
  39. http://hopc.bps.org.uk/histres/bpshistory/awards/spearman.cfm
  40. "Boyd McCandless Award: Past recipients: 1990". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  41. "Previous winners: May Davidson Award". The British Psychological Society. Retrieved 2013-12-28.
  42. http://hopc.bps.org.uk/histres/bpshistory/awards/awards_home.cfm
  43. "Time Out with Nick Cohen". New Statesman. 2007-02-26. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
  44. Szalavitz, Maia (2011-05-30). "Q&A: Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen on empathy and the science of evil". Time Magazine.
  45. Benenson, Joyce F. (2003). "Sex on the brain". Nature. 424 (6945): 132. doi:10.1038/424132b.
  46. Bond, Michael (2003-05-24). "Gender on the brain". New Scientist. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  47. Lawson-Tancred, Hugh (2003-06-14). "What little boys and girls are made of". p. 67. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
  48. Levy, Neil (2004). "Book review: Understanding blindness" (subscription required). Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences. 3 (3): 315–24. doi:10.1023/B:PHEN.0000049328.20506.a1.

External links

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