Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T06:17:32.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The “mechanism” of human cognitive variation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2008

Matthew K. Belmonte
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853-4401. [email protected]://www.mit.edu/~belmonte/

Abstract

The theory of psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders offers a tractable and testable view of normal and abnormal human cognitive variation as a function of opposing traits grouped by their selection for maternal and paternal reproductive fitness. The theory could be usefully rooted and developed with reference to the lower-level perceptual and attentional phenomena from which social cognitive modules are developmentally refined.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aylward, E. H., Minshew, N. J., Goldstein, G., Honeycutt, N. A., Augustine, A. M., Yates, K. O., Barta, P. E. & Pearlson, G. D. (1999) MRI volumes of amygdala and hippocampus in non-mentally retarded autistic adolescents and adults. Neurology 53:2145–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S. (2002) The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6:248–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, P. D. & Javitt, D. C. (2005) Early-stage visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 18:151–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, P. D., Martinez, A., Foxe, J. J., Kim, D., Zemon, V., Silipo, G., Mahoney, J., Shpaner, M., Jalbrzikowski, M. & Javitt, D. C. (2007) Subcortical visual dysfunction in schizophrenia drives secondary cortical impairments. Brain 130:417–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charman, T. (1997) The relationship between joint attention and pretend play in autism. Development and Psychopathology 9:116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corbett, B. A. & Constantine, L. J. (2006) Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Assessing attention and response control with the integrated visual and auditory continuous performance test. Child Neuropsychology 12:335–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLong, R. (2004) Autism and familial major mood disorder: Are they related? Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 16:199213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C. D. (2005a) The neural basis of hallucinations and delusions. Comptes Rendus Biologies 328:169–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarrold, C., Butler, D. W., Cottington, E. M. & Jimenez, F. (2000) Linking theory of mind and central coherence bias in autism and in the general population. Developmental Psychology 36:126–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, M. H., Halit, H., Grice, S. J. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002) Neuroimaging of typical and atypical development: A perspective from multiple levels of analysis. Development and Psychopathology 14:521–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2007) Atypical epigenesis. Developmental Science 10:8488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leitman, D. I., Hoptman, M. J., Foxe, J. J., Saccente, E., Wylie, G. R., Nierenberg, J., Jalbrzikowski, M., Lim, K. O. & Javitt, D. C. (2007) The neural substrates of impaired prosodic detection in schizophrenia and its sensorial antecedents. American Journal of Psychiatry 164:474–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, J. D. & Elman, J. L. (2008) Growth-related neural reorganization and the autism phenotype: A test of the hypothesis that altered brain growth leads to altered connectivity. Developmental Science 11:135–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McAlonan, G. M., Daly, E., Kumari, V., Critchley, H. D., van Amelsvoort, T., Suckling, J., Simmons, A., Sigmundsson, T, Greenwood, K., Russell, A., Schmitz, N., Happé, F., Howlin, P. & Murphy, D. G. M. (2002) Brain anatomy and sensorimotor gating in Asperger's syndrome. Brain 125:1594–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulières, I., Hubert, B., Burack, J. A. (2006) Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principles of autistic perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 36:2743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, W., Minassian, A., Lopez, B., Maron, L. & Lincoln, A. (2007) Sensorimotor gating deficits in adults with autism. Biological Psychiatry 61:482–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pies, R. (2007) The historical roots of the bipolar spectrum: Did Aristotle anticipate Kraepelin's broad concept of manic-depression? Journal of Affective Disorders 100:711.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rojas, D. C., Smith, J. A., Benkers, T. L., Camou, S. L., Reite, M. L. & Rogers, S. J. (2004) Hippocampus and amygdala volumes in parents of children with autistic disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 161:2038–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Takarae, Y., Minshew, N. J., Luna, B. & Sweeney, J. A. (2007) Atypical involvement of frontostriatal systems during sensorimotor control in autism. Psychiatry Research 156:117–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uhlhaas, P. J., Phillips, W. A., Schenkel, L. S. & Silverstein, S. M. (2006) Theory of mind and perceptual context-processing in schizophrenia. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 11:416–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uhlhaas, P. J. & Silverstein, S. M. (2005) Perceptual organization in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A review of empirical research and associated theories. Psychological Bulletin 131:618–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar