Theories of the autistic mind

symbolic play. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 139–148. Baron-Cohen, S. (1992). Out of sight or out of mind: Another look at deception in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 1141–1155. Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: i d h f i d Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 6, 248–254. Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The essential difference: Men, women and the extreme male brain. London: Penguin. Baron-Cohen, S. (2006). The hypersystemizing, assortative mating h f i P i Biological Psychiatry, 30, 865–872. Baron-Cohen, S. (2007a). I cannot tell a lie. In Character, 3, 52–59. Baron-Cohen, S. (2007b). Transported into a world of emotion. The Psychologist, 20, 76–77. Baron-Cohen, S. & Goodhart, F. (1994). The "seeing leads to knowing" deficit in autism: The Pratt and Bryant b B i i h J l f 397–402. Baron-Cohen, S., Hoekstra, R.A., Knickmeyer, R. & Wheelwright, S. (2006). The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ)-Adolescent version. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 36, 343–350. Baron-Cohen, Jolliffe, T., Mortimore, C. & Robertson, M. (1997). Another d d f h f i d The challenge has been to explain all of the features of autism, across all individuals on the autistic spectrum. After 25 years of careful testing, Simon Baron-Cohen concludes that 'mindblindness' or difficulties with empathy can explain the social-communication difficulties in autism, whilst the newer concept of 'hypersystemising' can explain the areas of strength in autism: excellent attention to detail, and unusually narrow interests. C lassic autism and Asperger’s syndrome both share three core diagnostic features: difficulties in social development, and in the development of communication, alongside unusually strong, narrow interests and repetitive behaviour. Since communication is always social, it might be more fruitful to think of autism and Asperger’s syndrome as sharing features in two broad areas: socialcommunication, and narrow interests/repetitive actions. As for distinguishing features, a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome requires that the child spoke on time and has average IQ or above. Today the notion of an autistic spectrum is no longer defined by any sharp separation from ‘normality’ (Wing, 1997). The clearest way of seeing this ‘normal’ distribution of autistic traits is using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (or AQ) (Baron-Cohen et al., 2006; Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner et al., 2001). This is a screening instrument in the form of a questionnaire, either completed by a parent about their child, or by self-report (if the adult is ‘high-functioning’). There are 50 items in total, and when administered to a large population the results resemble a ‘normal distribution’. Most people without a diagnosis fall in the range 0–25; most with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition fall between 26 and 50. Of those with an autistic spectrum condition, 80 per cent score above 32, and 99 per cent above 26. So the AQ neatly separates the groups – 93 per cent of the general population fall in the average range of the AQ, and 99 per cent of the autistic population fall in the extreme (high-end) of the scale. In the general population, males score slightly (but statistically significantly) higher than females. Since autism spectrum conditions are far more common in males than in females (classic autism occurs in four males for every one female, and Asperger’s syndrome occurs in nine males for every one female), this may suggest that the number of autistic traits a person has is connected to a sex-linked biological factor – genetic or hormonal, or both (Baron-Cohen et al., 2005; Baron-Cohen et al., 2004). These two aspects – the autistic spectrum and the possibility of sex-linked explanations – have been at the core of my research and theorising over recent years.