Professor Simon Baron-Cohen

Interests

The Autism Research Centre (ARC), of which I am Director, has 6 programs of research, all focusing on Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC):

(a) Perception and Cognition (investigating social and non-social cognition and sensory processing);

(b) Neuroscience (using fMRI, DTI, ERP, neuropathology, and TMS);

(c) Genetics and Proteomics (conducting candidate gene association studies, full genome pooled association studies, and mass spectrometry);

(d) Hormones (testing the role of foetal testosterone in typical sexual neural dimorphism and as a causal factor for ASC) ;

(e) Screening and Diagnosis (evaluating screening instruments in infancy and childhood); and

(f) Intervention (conducting 'treatment'-trials).

These are described on the Autism Research Centre website (please see side panel for link).

Support comes from the MRC, The Big Lottery, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, and Target Autism Genome, among other sources.

Foetus at 15 weeks of age: The Autism Research Centre is measuring foetal testosterone (FT) and following up these infants after birth to test if FT levels predict autism
Click image to view full-size

Research Focus

Equipment

Behavioural analysis

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Epidemiology

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Neuropsychological testing

Post-mortem neuropathology

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)