Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198524463 ISBN 13: 9780198524465

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The material for the original edition of this book was prepared in the late 1980s. During that time, there has been growth in the fields of theory of mind, autism, and cognitive neuroscience. This new edition includes a whole section on the cognitive neuroscience of mind-reading, bringing together varied research methods such as functional neuro-imaging, single cell recording, and neuropsychology. In addition, there is expanded coverage of primate studies and the evolution of a theory of mind, and new information relating theory of mind in clinical populations other than autism, such as schizophrenia. The original section on normal development has been updated, as has the debate over the relationship between theory of mind deficits and autism.

About this title

About the Author

Simon Baron-Cohen is at University of Cambridge. Helen Tager-Flusberg is at University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Review

"This is an important work in a rapidly changing field. The editors and contributors attempt to explain the always-elusive concept of self-awareness. The also attempt to explain that perhaps uniquely human quality of realizing that other, also, are self-aware, and how this ability is crucial in normal human development. Unlike may other books on this subject, the editors approach the concept from several different perspectives and succeed in offering an explanation using all these modalities. The book's usefulness is perhaps limited to researchers and child/development psychologists, but anyone interested in the subject will find it exciting reading."--Doody's

"Updated to integrate changes in theory, method, and data since the 1933 first edition, which was subtitled Perspectives from Autism, 21 studies cover the theory of mind from perspectives of normal development and autism, neurobiological aspects, clinical aspects, and anthropological and evolutionary issues. The range of topics is reflected in the disciplines from which the contributors hail. Among the specific concerns are developmental relationships between language and the theory of mind, the role of the frontal lobes and the amygdala, early diagnosis of autism, teaching the theory of mind to people with autism, whether chimpanzees use their gestures to instruct each other, and paleo-anthropological perspectives."--SciTech Book News

"Understanding Other Minds is a well thought-out text, with all the chapter authors achieving a very high standard of presentation. The book provides an excellent introduction for readers new to the area while also providing an important research synthesis for the more expert. It contains a wealth of material of obvious relevance and interest to psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and developmental psychologists, but will also be of interest to those working in other branches of psychology."--Psychological Medicine

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198524463
• ISBN 13: 9780198524465
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 550
• Editor: Baron-Cohen Simon, Tager-Flusberg Helen, Cohen Donald