Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from developmental social neuroscience
Simon Baron-Cohen, Michael Lombardo, and Helen Tager-Flusberg
Abstract
This book comprises 26 exciting chapters by internationally renowned scholars, addressing the central psychological process separating humans from other animals: the ability to imagine the thoughts and feelings of others, and to reflect on the contents of our own minds-a “theory of mind” (ToM). The four sections of the book cover developmental, cultural, and neurobiological approaches to ToM across different populations and species. The chapters explorethe earliest stages of development of ToMin infancy, and how plastic ToM learning is; why 3-year-olds typically fail false belief tasks and how ... More
This book comprises 26 exciting chapters by internationally renowned scholars, addressing the central psychological process separating humans from other animals: the ability to imagine the thoughts and feelings of others, and to reflect on the contents of our own minds-a “theory of mind” (ToM). The four sections of the book cover developmental, cultural, and neurobiological approaches to ToM across different populations and species. The chapters explorethe earliest stages of development of ToMin infancy, and how plastic ToM learning is; why 3-year-olds typically fail false belief tasks and how ToMcontinues to develop beyond childhoodinto adulthood;the debate between “simulation theory” and “theory theory”; cross-cultural perspectives on ToM and how ToM develops differently in deaf children; how we use our ToM when we make moral judgments, and the link between emotional intelligence and ToM; the neural basis of ToMmeasured by evoked response potentials,functional magnetic resonance imaging, and studies of brain damage; “emotional”vs. “cognitive” empathy in neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, and psychopathy; the concept of self in autism and teaching methods targeting ToM deficits; the relationship between empathy,the ‘pain matrix’ and the mirror neuron system; the role of oxytocin and fetal testosterone in mentalizing and empathy; the heritability of empathy andcandidate single nucleotide polymorphismsassociated with empathy; andToM innon-human primates. These 26 chapters represent a masterly overview of a field that has deepened since the first editionwas published in 1993.
Keywords:
theory of mind,
empathy,
developmental psychology,
moral judgment,
the self,
false belief,
fmri,
ERP,
brain damage,
autism,
deafness,
schizophrenia,
psychopathy,
oxytocin,
testosterone,
genetics,
mirror neurons,
primatology
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199692972 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2013 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199692972.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Simon Baron-Cohen, editor
Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Director, Autism Research Centre, Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK
Michael Lombardo, editor
Research Associate, Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK
Helen Tager-Flusberg, editor
Department of Psychology, Boston University, USA
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