Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen | Comment Your Questions
Cognitive neuroscientist and leading autism researcher
Sir Simon Baron-Cohen is Director of the Autism Research Centre and a global leader in autism research. He pioneered the ‘mindblindness’ and ‘empathizing-systemizing’ theories, has authored over 770 scientific papers, and was knighted in 2021 for his contributions to autism understanding. His work spans clinical practice, public education, and cutting-edge research on cognitive sex differences, empathy, and neurodiversity.
Tomorrow, he will be coming on the show to explain what autism is, how it manifests itself in people, theories on what causes it and recent comments from Donald Trump….
Comment your questions below.
Hi Simon, i must admit although i am sympathetic to genuine cases, i am cynical that more and more people say they are "on the spectrum" as a seeming coverall for excusing all sorts of behaviour or genuine lack of certain abilities.
Is there actually a way a layman can tell the difference?
Thanks in advance, Paul.
I fort u av to be pretty artistic to play Ali G, Borat and Bruno. That's range, innit?
Sorry about that, had to be done.
The real question is: to what extent is the current fashion of diagnosing a huge array of people as somewhere 'on the spectrum' just significant supply of services looking to create adequate levels of demand?