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Cognitive development - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Culture bias - Baren-Cohen’s sample was entirely British, and this approach to understanding autism has a very Western perspective. Maguire (2013) has suggested that the higher rates of autism diagnosed in terms of the fact that some key autistic characteristics may be actually not be considered abnormal in some cultures.
      - Role of environment - research shows that it appears earlier in childhood from large families (Perner et al). Having a large family and especially older siblings means that a child is challenged to think about the feelings of others when resolving conflicts and discussion about motives and other mental states promotes the development of ToM.
      - Incomplete explanation - research only shows that some, but not all, autistic people lack ToM which suggests if ToM was a central aspect of autism, we would expect that all autistic participants would show differences. Also, do not know whether ToM is cause or effect as it is difficult to distinguish whether people fail to fully develop ToM because they are autistic or whether people don’t have a fully developed ToM and this can lead to autism.
- - - - Practical applications - (drug therapy) if defective mirror neurons are responsible for social cognition, and explain autism, this opens the possibility for a biological drug therapy to improve the sense of empathy and ultimately social communication in people with autism.
      - Reductionist - the suggestion that the complex process of social cognition, and in particular empathy is simply due to the automatic firing of mirror neurons is highly reductionist, the role of learning, for example of ethical principles and societal norms is important.
      - Research support - Lacoboni (2005) found in fMRI scans of 24 participants high levels of mirror neurone activity in both the premotor cortex, but also the inferior frontal gyrus, an area of the brain involved with intentional thinking. Suggests mirror neurone function is not just to stimulate behaviour, but to infer the intention of others from their behaviour.
      - Extrapolation - in order to identify and measure mirror neurons exactly, electrodes need to be attached to the neurons. This cannot be done on human brains so much of the research has been carried out on monkeys who have nowhere near the same social repertoire as humans. Therefore, humans may have a more sophisticated MNS or have other, as yet undiscovered, biological systems underpinning theory of mind.