Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen (born 15 August 1958)[1] is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge.
He received a PhD in psychology at University College London;[6] his doctoral research was in collaboration with his supervisor Uta Frith.
[11] He is a BPS Chartered Psychologist[9] and a Senior Investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
In 1985, while he was member of the MRC Cognitive Development Unit (CDU) in London, he and his colleagues Uta Frith and Alan Leslie formulated the "theory of mind" (ToM) hypothesis, to explain the social-communication difficulties in autism.
He found single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) partly contribute to individual differences on this dimensional trait measure on which autistic people show difficulties.
The National Institutes of Health recommended Baron-Cohen's eyes test as a core measure that should be used as part of the Research Domain Criteria (RDOC) for assessing social cognition.
[30] Baron-Cohen's work in E-S theory led him to investigate whether higher levels of prenatal testosterone explain the increased rate of autism among males.
This study demonstrated, for the first time in humans, how normative variation in amniotic prenatal testosterone levels correlates with individual differences in typical postnatal brain and behavioral development.
His team discovered that in typical children, amount of eye contact, rate of vocabulary development, quality of social relationships, theory of mind performance, and scores on the empathy quotient are all inversely correlated with prenatal testosterone levels.
In contrast, he found that scores on the embedded figures test (of attention to detail), on the systemizing quotient (SQ), measures of narrow interests, and number of autistic traits are positively correlated with prenatal testosterone levels.
[37] An independent animal model by Xu et al. (2015, Physiology and Behavior, 138, 13–20) showed that elevated prenatal testosterone during pregnancy leads to reduced social interest in the offspring.
Baron-Cohen's group also studied the rate of autism in offspring of mothers with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a medical condition caused by elevated prenatal testosterone.
[38] This has been replicated in three other countries (Sweden, Finland, and Israel) and is in line with the finding that mothers of autistic children themselves have elevated sex steroid hormones.
[39][40] But to really test the theory, Baron-Cohen needed a much larger sample than his Cambridge Child Development Project, since autism only occurs in 1% of the population.
[42] In addition, he found both mothers and fathers of autistic children score above average on tests of attention to detail, a prerequisite for strong systemizing.
[55] The Lancet described him as "a man with extraordinary knowledge, but his passionate advocacy for a more tolerant, diverse society, where difference is respected and cultivated, reveals a very human side to his science".
[59] According to Time magazine, his views on systemizing traits had "earned him the ire of some parents of autistic children, who complain that he underestimates their families' suffering".
Feminist scientists, including Cordelia Fine, neuroscientist Gina Rippon, and Lise Eliot have questioned his extreme male brain theory of autism.
[68] Time magazine has also criticized the assortative mating theory proposed by Baron-Cohen, claiming that it is largely speculative and based on anecdotal evidence.
[70] Critics also argue that Baron-Cohen's focus on autistic people without intellectual or learning disability limits how far his findings can be generalised.
Regarding the second criticism, Baron-Cohen has replied that autistic people are fully human and that theory of mind simply exists on a bell curve of individual differences.
[91] Baron-Cohen's Mindreading and The Transporters special educational software were nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards in 2002 and 2007.