Simon Baron-Cohen: biography of this psychologist and researcher

A review of the career of Simon Baron-Cohen, researcher of neurodevelopmental disorders.

The field of autism has been studied for many years, as it is an increasingly diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder. One of its major researchers is Simon Baron-Cohen, British psychologist, author and co-author of theories such as "The Theory of Mind" and "The Autistic Male Brain".

In this article we will see through a biography of Simon Baron-Cohen who this psychologist is, what his career is and what he has done.What is his trajectory and what he has discovered in relation to this disorder as complex as interesting.

Summary biography of Simon Baron-Cohen

Simon Baron-Cohen is a British psychologist, doctor in Psychology, who was born on August 15, 1958 in London (England). He is also currently working as Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, in the Department of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology.

In addition, Simon Baron-Cohen also researches neurodevelopmental disorders (such as autism), and is Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC). (Autism Research Centre - ARC), and is a Fellow of Trinity College (University of Cambridge).

As for his training, psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen obtained a Master's degree in Human Sciences from New College Oxford, as well as a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.

Subsequently, she completed a PhD in Psychology at University College London. The supervisor of her PhD Thesis was Uta Frith, a leading developmental psychologist, also an expert in autism.

Technology and special education

Before going into Simon Baron-Cohen's famous theories, we will explain that this psychologist has also been interested in new technologies and their use in disorders such as autism.

Thus, Baron-Cohen developed software for children with learning difficulties or neurodevelopmental disorders (i.e., an education program for children with autism). (i.e., a special education program), called "Mindreading". In addition, she also designed an animated series to teach emotion recognition and understanding for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Baron-Cohen's Theories of Autism

Thus, Simon Baron-Cohen has done a lot of work in the field of autism (also in his research). In fact, Baron-Cohen elaborated several theories on autism. The first of his theories speaks of a certain "mental blindness" characteristic of autism. characteristic of autism, mental blindness being understood as certain delays in the development of theory of mind.

1. Theory of Mind (ToM)

The theory of mind (ToM), developed by Simon-Baron Cohen, Uta Frith and Alan Leslie in 1985, attempts to explain the communicative deficits present in autism, as well as the deficits in social interaction. In addition, this theory is the first diagnostic criterion for autism disorder in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders).

What is Theory of Mind (ToM)? It is the ability of people without autism or another disorder (i.e., "neurotypical" people) to represent the mental states of othersin their own mind. That is, it implies understanding that others have different states, and that these may be different from our own.

This ability usually appears in the early stages of child development, and is consolidated by the age of 4 or 5 years (by the age of 7 years practically all children have it developed). ToM helps us to pick up social signals from our environment and to interpret them.. In people with autism, this capacity is altered (it is deficient) and may even be absent (although there are also degrees). However, fortunately it is an ability that can be worked on.

Male brain theory 2.

Subsequent to this theory, Simon Baron-Cohen also postulates another one: through it he argues that autism consists of an extreme form of "male brain". This theory is called "Male Brain Theory" or "Empathy-Systemization Theory".

This theory holds that there are "two major types of brains", male and female.. Masculine people have a facility for systematizing, recognizing and analyzing patterns, and feminine people show greater facility for empathy and better attunement to the emotional state of others.

Thus, according to the Male Brain Theory, people with autism have a more masculine (in fact, extreme masculine) brain, since their systematization skills are exaggeratedly developed (versus empathy skills (versus the more emotional empathy skills).

It was in the late 1990s that Simon Baron-Cohen developed this hypothesis. This hypothesis sought to explain the differences between the two sexes, and analyzed them from a neurobiological and psychological point of view.

Autism Research

One of Simon Baron-Cohen's most outstanding researches is the one in which he shows that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show some delay in the development of Theory of Mind (ToM), as described above. (ToM), previously described. In fact, this research was the first study carried out on this subject, and Simon Baron-Cohen was co-author of it.

Baron-Cohen continued his research on this topic, and eventually published two anthologies, entitled "Understanding Other Minds" (1993 and 2000).

Other aspects analyzed by this author, together with his team, were joint care (or shared care) for children with ASD.. Let us recall that joint attention is the ability to share the focus of our attention on an object or activity, together with another person, at a precise moment.

Thus, the studies of Simon Baron-Cohen and his research team related this capacity to the deficit in the Theory of Mind of children with autism, postulating that this deficit has its origin in the absence of joint attention. Specifically, they suggested that the absence of joint attention at 18 months was one of the indicators of later autism..

The autistic brain

As we can see, Simon Baron-Cohen has focused on studying the mind and brain of people with autism. Some of his studies suggest that there are certain differences in autistic brains, with respect to the brains of people without autism.

These differences lie mainly in two brain structures: the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex.. In fact, in relation to these findings, Baron-Cohen proposed another of his theories; this one in particular is called "amygdala theory of autism".

Right temporoparietal junction

One of Simon Baron-Cohen's findings in relation to the autistic brain was in 2011, when he demonstrated (together with his colleague Michael Lombardo) that a specific brain structure, the right temporoparietal junction, remained hypoactivated (in the brains of autistic children) during tasks that allowed studying the Theory of Mind.

Moreover, the differences found in this brain structure were also related to variations in the social deficits of these children.