James Harris is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he is founding director of the Developmental Neuropsychiatry Clinic. He is also a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He served on the American Psychiatric Association committee that wrote the new definition of autism spectrum disorder for the DSM-5.
James Harris
Professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
From this contributor
Correcting the record: Leo Kanner and the broad autism phenotype
The specter of the ‘refrigerator mother’ theory continues to haunt the history of autism. New information puts Kanner’s observations of parents into context.
Correcting the record: Leo Kanner and the broad autism phenotype
By
James Harris, Joseph Piven
26 April 2016 | 10 min read
Explore more from The Transmitter
The term ‘model organism’ should be reserved for biological systems
By referring to artificial neural networks as model organisms, we run the risk of distorting funding priorities and disregard the explanatory power of a shared evolutionary history across biological organisms.
The term ‘model organism’ should be reserved for biological systems
By referring to artificial neural networks as model organisms, we run the risk of distorting funding priorities and disregard the explanatory power of a shared evolutionary history across biological organisms.
By
Marc Coutanche
13 November 2026 | 6 min read
New phase of BRAIN Initiative spawns basal ganglia ‘parts list’
With a standardized cell naming system and infrastructure for data collection and analysis, the basal ganglia project sets the stage for a whole-brain primate atlas.
New phase of BRAIN Initiative spawns basal ganglia ‘parts list’
With a standardized cell naming system and infrastructure for data collection and analysis, the basal ganglia project sets the stage for a whole-brain primate atlas.
By
Claudia López Lloreda
12 November 2026 | 1 min watch
Machine-learning model spots autism-linked variants that scramble splicing
The model provides a way to investigate genetic variation in regions of the genome whose functions have been difficult to interpret.
Machine-learning model spots autism-linked variants that scramble splicing
The model provides a way to investigate genetic variation in regions of the genome whose functions have been difficult to interpret.
By
Giorgia Guglielmi
12 November 2026 | 4 min read