Simon Baron-Cohen

"At last, leading psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen confirms what most of us have long suspected: male and female brains are different. This groundbreaking and controversial study reveals the scientific evidence (present even in one-day-old babies) that proves female brains are better at empathizing and communicating, while male brains are stronger at understanding and building systems--not just computers and machinery, but abstract systems such as politics and music. Most revolutionary of all, The Essential Difference also puts forward the compelling new theory that autism (and the related condition of Asperger Syndrome) is actually an example of the extreme male brain, leaving those with the condition able to analyze the most complex systems but unable to relate to others' emotional lives. Understanding our essential difference, Simon Baron-Cohen concludes, may help us not just to make sense of our partners' foibles, but to solve one of the most mysterious scientific riddles of our time."--Back cover of paperback.

In Mindblindness, Simon Baron-Cohen presents a model of the evolution and development of "mindreading." He argues that we mindread all the time, effortlessly, automatically, and mostly unconsciously. It is the natural way in which we interpret, predict, and participate in social behavior and communication. We ascribe mental states to people: states such as thoughts desires, knowledge, and intentions. Building on many years of research, Baron-Cohen concludes that children with autism suffer from "mindblindness" as a result of a selective impairment in mindreading. For these children the world is essentially devoid of mental things. Baron-Cohen develops a theory that draws on data from comparative psychology, from developmental psychology, and from neuropsychology. He argues that specific neurocognitive mechanisms have evolved that allow us to mindread, to make sense of actions, to interpret gazes as meaningful, and to decode "the language of the eyes."

Synaesthesia is a condition in which a stimulus in one sensory modality automatically triggers a perceptual experience in another. For example, on hearing a sound, the person immediately sees a colour. How does this happen? Is it a real phenomenon? Why do some people develop this condition and not others? And might synaesthesia provide important clues about the organization of the normal brain? This volume brings together what is known about this fascinating neurological condition. The above questions, and new issues arising from the recent wave of cognitive neuroscientific research into synaesthesia, are debated in a series of chapters by leading authorities in the field. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the cognitive neurosciences, and is intended to spark further investigation into this relatively neglected, extraordinary phenomenon.

De auteur zet uiteen welke verschillende stoornissen binnen het autistisch spectrum onderscheiden worden. Hij geeft een overzicht van de huidige inzichten in klassiek autisme en het Aspergersyndroom, wat de overeenkomsten zijn, en hoe zij van elkaar verschillen.Tevens vat hij de nieuwste inzichten samen van onze kennis van het brein, de rol van genetische en biomedische aspecten en de invloed van gedragstherapie.

A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity. Why can humans alone invent? In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for seventy thousand years, from the first tools to the digital revolution. How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species's inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including social and often medical challenges, so Baron-Cohen calls on us to support and celebrate autistic people in both their disabilities and their triumphs. Ultimately, The Pattern Seekers isn't just a new theory of human civilization, but a call to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.

"In The Science of Evil Simon Baron-Cohen, an award-winning British researcher who has investigated psychology and autism for decades, develops a new brain-based theory of human cruelty. A true psychologist, however, he examines social and environmental factors that can erode empathy, including neglect and abuse. Based largely on Baron-Cohen's own research, The Science of Evil will change the way we understand and treat human cruelty"--Provided by publisher.