Moheb Costandi
Freelance Writer
SFARI
From this contributor
Uta and Chris Frith: A partnership of the mind
British psychologist Uta Frith has singlehandedly transformed our understanding of autism. In partnership with her husband, neuroimaging expert Chris Frith, she helped launch the field of cognitive neuroscience and shaped a generation of scientists.
Uta and Chris Frith: A partnership of the mind
Visual skills superior in autism, study says
People with autism are highly adept at detecting symmetry in patterns, according to a study published 29 April in PLoS ONE.
Simon Baron-Cohen: Theorizing on the mind in autism
Few scientists have a career that spans as wide a spectrum in autism research as Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. And fewer still garner effusive compliments from those who don’t agree with them.
Simon Baron-Cohen: Theorizing on the mind in autism
‘Broken mirror’ concept of autism challenged
Several new studies challenge the ‘broken mirror’ hypothesis of autism, which suggests that defects in specialized brain cells called mirror neurons explain why people with the disorder find social interaction difficult.
Explore more from The Transmitter
Autism-linked genes alter sleep behavior, and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 13 April.
Autism-linked genes alter sleep behavior, and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 13 April.
This paper changed my life: Erin Calipari ponders the nuances of rewarding and aversive stimuli
A 1960s study by Kelleher and Morse found that lever pressing in squirrel monkeys depended not on whether they received a reward or shock, but on the rules of the task. This taught Calipari to think deeply about factors that influence how behavior is generated and maintained.
This paper changed my life: Erin Calipari ponders the nuances of rewarding and aversive stimuli
A 1960s study by Kelleher and Morse found that lever pressing in squirrel monkeys depended not on whether they received a reward or shock, but on the rules of the task. This taught Calipari to think deeply about factors that influence how behavior is generated and maintained.
Why neural foundation models work, and what they might—and might not—teach us about the brain
These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?
Why neural foundation models work, and what they might—and might not—teach us about the brain
These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?