Highlights from IMFAR 2008:
Thursday, May 15
Keynote Speaker Presentation
Francesca Happé
Institute of Psychiatry, KCL
Francesca Happé
Institute of Psychiatry, KCL
Title: Time to give up on a single explanation for autism?
Overview: In this talk I will suggest that we should abandon the search for a single unifying cause for the diverse symptoms defining autism. I will present recent evidence of behavioural fractionation of social impairment, communication difficulties and rigid and repetitive behaviours in a population-based sample. Twin analyses in the same sample suggest largely nonoverlapping genes acting on each of these traits. At the cognitive level, too, attempts at a single explanation for the symptoms of autism appear to have failed. Instead, different cognitive accounts are needed for the different aspects of autism, and distinct neural systems appear to be involved. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.
Overview: In this talk I will suggest that we should abandon the search for a single unifying cause for the diverse symptoms defining autism. I will present recent evidence of behavioural fractionation of social impairment, communication difficulties and rigid and repetitive behaviours in a population-based sample. Twin analyses in the same sample suggest largely nonoverlapping genes acting on each of these traits. At the cognitive level, too, attempts at a single explanation for the symptoms of autism appear to have failed. Instead, different cognitive accounts are needed for the different aspects of autism, and distinct neural systems appear to be involved. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.
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