Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism

Baron-Cohen, S, Knickmeyer, RC and Belmonte, MK ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4633-9400, 2005. Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism. Science, 310 (5749). ISSN 0036-8075

Preview

Text 219535_PubSub1971_Belmonte.pdf Download (318kB) | Preview

Abstract

‘Empathizing’ is the capacity to predict and to respond to the behavior of agents (usually people) by inferring their mental states and responding to these with an appropriate emotion. ‘Systemizing’ is the capacity to predict and to respond to the behavior of non-agentive, deterministic systems, by analyzing input-operation-output relations and inferring the rules that govern such systems. At a population level, females are stronger empathizers and males stronger systemizers. The ‘extreme male brain’ theory posits that autism represents an extreme of the male pattern (impaired empathizing and enhanced systemizing). Here we suggest that specific aspects of autistic neuropathology may also be extremes of typical male neuroanatomy.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Science
Creators:	Baron-Cohen, S., Knickmeyer, R.C. and Belmonte, M.K.
Publisher:	American Association for the Advancement of Science
Date:	2005
Volume:	310
Number:	5749
ISSN:	0036-8075
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1126/science.1115455 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:47
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:10
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2710

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads