Simon Baron-Cohen

Simon Baron-Cohen
Baron-Cohen in 2011
Born	(1958-08-15) 15 August 1958
Residence	England
Nationality	British
Fields	Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Alma mater	New College, Oxford King's College London University College London
Thesis	Social cognition and pretend-play in autism (1985)
Doctoral advisor	Uta Frith
Known for	Autism research
Notable awards	Kanner-Asperger Medal 2013 (WGAS)

Simon Baron-Cohen FBA (born 15 August 1958) 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 has worked on autism, including the hypothesis that autism involves degrees of mind-blindness (or delays in the development of theory of mind) and his later hypothesis that autism is an extreme form of what he calls the "male brain", which involved a re-conceptualization of typical psychological sex differences in terms of empathising-systemising theory.

Personal life and 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 completed a PhD in Psychology at University College London; his doctoral research was in collaboration with his supervisor Uta Frith.

Baron-Cohen has three children, the eldest of whom is screenwriter and director Sam Baron. He has an older brother Dan Baron Cohen and three younger siblings, brother Ash Baron-Cohen and sisters Suzie and Liz. Their cousin is actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Autism research

Baron-Cohen was lead author in 1985 of the first study of children with autism and delays in the development of a theory of mind, known as ToM. The theory of mind is the ability to detect other people's emotions and thoughts, and it is a skill that according to Baron-Cohen's research is typically delayed developmentally in children with autism.

Baron-Cohen and his colleagues discovered in 1987 the first evidence that experiences in synaesthesia remain consistent over time; they also found synaesthesia to be measurable via neuroimaging techniques. His team has investigated whether synaesthesia is connected to autism.

In 1997, Baron-Cohen developed the empathising–systemising theory; his theory is that a cognitive profile with a systemising drive that is stronger than empathising is associated with maths, science and technology skills, and exists in families with autism spectrum disorders. He suspects that if individuals with a "systemising" focus are selecting each other as mates, they are more likely to have children with autism. He postulates that more individuals with autistic traits are marrying each other and having children. He said that "In essence, some geeks may be carriers of genes for autism: in their own life, they do not demonstrate any signs of severe autism, but when they pair up and have kids, their children may get a double dose of autism genes and traits. In this way, assortative mating between technical-minded people might spread autism genes." Time magazine said that his views on systemising 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 did not support the assortive mating theory, a survey finding that autism was twice as high in Eindhoven (the Silicon Valley of the Netherlands) had "breathed new life" into Baron-Cohen's theory.

Baron-Cohen's work in systemising-empathising led him to investigate whether higher levels of fetal testosterone explain the increased prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among males; his theory is known as the "extreme male brain" theory of autism. A review of his book The Essential Difference published in Nature in 2003 summarises his proposal as: "the male brain is programmed to systemize and the female brain to empathize ... Asperger's syndrome represents the extreme male brain". Critics say that because his work has focused on higher-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders, it requires independent replication with broader samples. A Nature article published in 2011 says, "Some critics are also rankled by Baron-Cohen's history of headline-grabbing theories—particularly one that autism is an 'extreme male' brain state. They worry that his theory about technically minded parents may be giving the public wrong ideas, including the impression that autism is linked to being a 'geek'."

In 2001 he developed the Autism Spectrum Quotient, a set of fifty questions that can be used to help determine whether or not an adult exhibits symptoms of autism. Neuroscientist Francesca Happé questions whether the questionnaires produce objective enough results to be useful, as they rely on the subject's self-evaluation rather than independent observations. Psychologist Uta Frith agrees, and notes that "rigorous studies are still missing".

Baron-Cohen developed the Mindreading software for special education, which was nominated for an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) interactive award in 2002. His lab developed The Transporters, an animation series designed to teach children with autism to recognise and understand emotions. The series was also nominated for a BAFTA award.

Organizations

Baron-Cohen is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS), the British Academy, and the Association for Psychological Science. He is a BPS Chartered Psychologist.

He serves as Vice-President of the National Autistic Society (UK), and was the 2012 Chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline Development Group for adults with autism. He has served as Vice-President of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). He is co-editor in chief of the journal Molecular Autism.

Recognition

Baron-Cohen was awarded the 1990 Spearman Medal from the BPS, the McAndless Award from the American Psychological Association, the 1993 May Davidson Award for Clinical Psychology from the BPS, and the 2006 presidents' Award from the BPS. He was awarded the Kanner-Asperger Medal in 2013 by the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Autismus-Spektrum as a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to autism research.

Media appearances

In 2005, Baron-Cohen appeared in the 2005 Science Channel documentary Brainman about Daniel Tammet.

Selected publications

Single-authored books

• (published in the US as The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Human Cruelty, ISBN 978-0-465-02353-0)

See also

• Childhood Autism Spectrum Test
• Sally-Anne test

External links

• Profile – Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge
• "They just can't help it", Simon Baron-Cohen, The Guardian (17 April 2003)
• "The Male Condition", Simon Baron-Cohen, The New York Times Op-Ed Section (8 August 2005)
• "The Assortative Mating Theory: A Talk with Simon Baron-Cohen", Edge Foundation discussion, 2005
• "The Short Life of a Diagnosis" Simon Baron-Cohen The New York Times Op-Ed Section (9 November 2009)
• "Why a lack of empathy is the root of all evil", Clint Witchalls, The Independent (5 April 2011)
• The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty, Simon Baron-Cohen (The Montréal Review, October 2011)