Uta Frith, Ph.D. - "How Cognitive Theories Can Help Us Explain Autism"

Abstract: Should autism researchers focus solely on identifying the ultimate biological causes of autism? Researchers must also work towards understanding what kind of thing autism is. What does it mean for an individual to have autistic disorder? Knowing the causes of the disorder cannot answer this question. We will only understand what autism is when we look at a whole causal chain of step-by-step explanations. This causal chain needs to be built by connecting biology and behaviour. The middle ground between biology and behaviour is cognition. This middle ground helps us to develop theories that explain signs and symptoms of autism by rigorously tested experiments, and thus to build vital links in the long chain of causes. Three cognitive theories are currently trying to explain the social and non-social features of autism, the difficulties and strengths. One proposal is that individuals with autism suffer from executive dysfunction, which might explain their rigidity and repetitive behaviour patterns, as well as many of their practical difficulties in everyday life. Another proposal, aimed at explaining the typically uneven profile of intellectual functioning and the phenomenon of savant skills, is that of a detail-focussed processing style. This is often referred to as “weak central coherence”. A third theory is targeted at the social and communication impairments and is often referred to as “mindblindness”. I will suggest that these proposals are complementary rather than contradictory, and that they help us to refine the phenotype of autism so that it has a better chance to be mapped to the genotype.

Channel: iTunes Video Length: 61m 18s Date Found: Tue, Mar 30 2010 11:53 PM Category: Science Date Produced: Wed, Feb 08 2006 9:00 PM View Count: 0