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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Author

Simon Baron-Cohen

Director of Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University

Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. He holds degrees in Human Sciences from New College, Oxford, a PhD in Psychology from UCL, and an M.Phil in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry. He held lectureships in both of these departments in London before moving to Cambridge in 1994. He is also Director of CLASS (Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service), a clinic for adults with suspected AS.

He is author of Mindblindness (MIT Press, 1995), The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain (Penguin UK/Basic Books, 2003), Zero Degrees of Empathy (Penguin UK, 2011, and published under The Science of Evil by Basic Books, US), and Prenatal Testosterone in Mind (MIT Press, 2005). He has edited a number of scholarly anthologies, including Understanding Other Minds (OUP, 1993, 2001), The Maladapted Mind (Erlbaum, 1997) and Synaesthesia (Blackwells, 1997).

He has also written books for parents and teachers such as Autism: The Facts (OUP, 1993), Tourette Syndrome: The Facts (OUP, 1998), and Teaching children with autism to mind read (Wiley, 1998). He is author of the DVD-ROM Mind Reading: an interactive guide to emotions (Jessica Kingsley Ltd, 2003) that was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Off-Line Learning.

He has been awarded prizes from the American Psychological Association, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), and the British Psychological Society (BPS) for his research into autism. He has been President of the Psychology Section of the BA, Vice President of the International Society for Autism Research, and the National Autistic Society, and received the 2006 Presidents’ Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge from the BPS. His current research is testing the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism at the neural, endocrine and genetic levels.

Simon Baron-Cohen is an Editor-in-Chief of the online open access journal Molecular Autism.

December 2019
Illustration shows fetus with molecules interacting inside the mother's belly

In defense of sex steroids’ role in autism

by ,  /  12 December 2019

Multiple independent studies are revealing evidence suggesting that sex steroids are important in autism.

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August 2017
Illustration of pregnant woman standing in the dark, looking toward a doorway letting light into the room.

Studying pregnant women with autism may offer clues to the condition

by ,  /  22 August 2017

Following women with autism through pregnancy and beyond may reveal factors that shape the likelihood of autism in their children.

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October 2015

Linking autism, sex, gender and prenatal hormones

by  /  19 October 2015

Elevated levels of fetal sex steroid hormones such as testosterone may explain many of autism’s unique features.

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July 2014

Remembering Lorna Wing (1928-2014)

by ,  /  15 July 2014

Lorna Wing, who died in June, was the modest, kind and thoughtful mother of a daughter with severe autism. She was also a towering figure in the history of autism research, and her contributions to our understanding of autism cannot be overestimated.

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May 2013

Despite fears, DSM-5 is a step forward

by  /  30 May 2013

There is little to fear in the definition of autism in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and a lot to recommend it, says Simon Baron-Cohen.

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