autism papers

Simon Baron-Cohen - Are children with autism superior at folk physics?

Simon Baron-Cohen - Is Asperger’s syndrome/High-Functioning Autism necessarily a disability?

Elisabeth Pacherie - Motor images, self-consciousness, and autism (Abstract)

Review of Cognitive deficits in brain disorders

James Russell’s chapter is a critique of theories relating to autism. While some of the preceding chapters simply describe performance profiles on neuropsychological test batteries, Russell thinks more carefully about his topic, considering exactly what features "autistic tests" have in common. He argues for a rejection of the idea that autistic patients have abnormal "theory of mind". In its place Russell proposes a pragmatic-cognitive account, in which self monitoring and control functions are emphasised rather than representational states.

For example, it has been suggested that the failure of autistic children to engage in make believe games reflects an inability to conceptualise "imaginary play". Russell points out that the concept of pretend play is unlikely to be relevant to its development. More important is an ability to generalise associations between perceptual cues and behaviour. A toddler who is pretending that a banana is a telephone does not conceptualise the banana as a "pretend phone". As far as the child’s brain is concerned the banana is a phone. But autistic children are unable to process objects in this way. Their behaviour is bound by narrow categorisations and interpretations of the world.

Parts of this book made me feel that neuropsychology may be suffering from a similar problem. There is a tendency to classify tasks according to the cognitive modules they purport to test, rather than examining the relative demands they place on neural control systems. Perhaps only when armed with a better understanding of how brains really work will neuropsychologists make more progress in relating structure to function.