Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Social Neuroscience

Over its previous two editions, Understanding Other Minds has established itself as a classic text on autism and theory of mind.

In the 15 years since the last edition was prepared, the neuroimaging literature on 'theory of mind' has expanded significantly, revealing new brain regions and their role in regard to 'theory of mind'. Other major changes include developments in the study of infants and in the fields of hormones and genetics. Such studies have revealed evidence of both heritability (from twin studies), some molecular genetic associations, and a specific role for both sex steroid hormones(such as foetal testosterone) and neuropeptide hormones, such as oxytocin.

The new edition brings together an international team of leading writers and researchers from psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and philosophy to present a state-of-the-art review of scientific research in this important field - one that will be essential for all those involved in the fields of developmental psychology and neuroscience, as well as psychiatrists and philosophers.

Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Director, Autism Research Centre, Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK,Michael Lombardo, Research Associate, Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK,Helen Tager-Flusberg, Department of Psychology, Boston University, USA

Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinty College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. He holds degrees in Human Sciences from New College, Oxford, a PhD in Psychology from UCL, and an M.Phil in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. He held lectureships in both of these departments before moving to Cambridge in 1994. He is author of Mindblindness (1995), The Essential Difference (2003), Prenatal Testosterone in Mind (2005), and Zero Degrees of Empathy (2011). He has edited a number of scholarly anthologies including Understanding Ohter Minds (1993, 2000, and 2013), Synaesthesia (1997), and The Maladapted Mind (1997). He has also written books for parents and teachers including Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts (2008), and Teaching Children with Autism to Mindread (1999). He has celebrated art in autism in An Exact Mind (2004).

Michael V. Lombardo received a BA from the University of California, Davis and PhD from the University of Cambridge. Soon after his PhD he took up a research fellowship from Jesus College, Cambridge and a postdoctoral research fellowship from the British Academy. Dr. Lombardo is currently a research associate and Director of MRI at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. His interdisciplinary work focuses on understanding autism, self-referential and social cognition, human brain development, and the early effects that hormones have for programming later development.

Helen Tager-Flusberg received her Bachelors in Science in Psychology from University College London, and her doctorate from Harvard University. From 1978 through 2001 she was a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts -Boston. From 1996 - 2001 she also held the position of Senior Scientist at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center/UMass Medical Center. Since 2001 Dr. Tager-Flusberg has been at Boston University in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Pediatrics at the School of Medicine and now as Professor of Psychology at Boston University, where she is the Director of the Autism Center of Excellence. Dr. Tager-Flusberg has conducted research on autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders investigating developmental changes in language and social cognition using behavioral and brain imaging methodologies.