Uta Frith

Interesting thoughts about what makes the diagnosis of autism so appealing. emilyredacted.substack.com/p/the-proble...

If you want to know what the Fonagy review missed. substack.com/@fionameredi...

We've elaborated on a recommendation of the Fonagy Review www.bmj.com/content/395/...

I do like the updated definition of profound autism! Profound Autism Prevalence and Assessment Practices in a Population-Based Study - Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry www.jaacap.org/article/S089...

📖 New review out today in @natrevneuro.nature.com: Towards an integrative neuroscience of metacognition 🧠🧪 Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa

Glad to be part of this elegant study that is reshaping the way I think about metacognition. Confidence is strikingly goal-sensitive, with supposedly sensory biases such as PEB being readily flipped through instruction. Led by Prady Sepulveda and Benedetto De Martino www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The great German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born #onthisday in 1749. As well as penning novels, poetry, criticism, and dramas, he also wrote various scientific treatises, including his 1810 book Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours): publicdomainreview.org/essay/b... #OTD

The free-rider detection problem: How groups balance fairness and cooperation | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... I found this paper relevant to understand society's tolerance or lack of it, for people who are unable to work for reasons of poor mental health.

In case you want to know what my views were in 2016 on the autism spectrum and more besides, there is an in-depth interview www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/r... I don't think my views have changed that much. But well, even subtle changes can have consequences.

My thoughts about the autism spectrum: Autism spectrum disorder: has it lost its meaning and is it leading to misdiagnosis? Psychological Medicine. 2026;56:e240. doi:10.1017/S0033291726105376

Moved by the Lightest Touch of Meaning: Even Minimal Significance Matters for Motivation From Childhood Yilin Liu and Fan Yang, Psych.Sci. doi.org/10.1177/0956... Children and adults strongly preferred artistic activities where their work would be saved over activities with no lasting existence.

Article about Tim Dalgleish, the new Dawson Chair of Young People's Mental Health @campsydept.bsky.social @mrccbu.bsky.social www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/magazine/iss...

Just heard from @utafrith.bsky.social about @migrationmuseum.org and followed several new links, so good to repost details of the meeting I helped to organise on behalf of @adelphigenetics.bsky.social. So many migrants at several of my organisations: @royalsociety.org @ucleye.bsky.social

On the transmission of texts: Written cultures as complex systems academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Brenda Milner is a hero and 108!! She did a lot more than discover the hippocampus is linked to declarative memory, but that work is the most famous.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this excellent paper. I wonder, are there parallels in the use of rigid/flexible criteria in clinical diagnosis with varying opacity of symptoms? Why human societies adopt rigid moral rules: The efficiency–robustness trade-off | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Heart rate synchrony as a marker of real-world social engagement academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

A novel and exciting approach to understanding cooperation. Linking compromise and responsibility attribution to risky decision-making in dyadic foraging | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Oustanding longitudinal study with mostly low-IQ autistic preschoolers and MA matched controls. Even here there are subgroups. Autistic children with better visual search performance had worse parent-reported communication problems. doi.org/10.1002/aur....

Is this a model of how the brain works?

Watch this short, powerful, very on-point speech. Literal shivers watching @mjcrockett.bsky.social make the most of their platform!

Super-interesting paper about a cognitive strength in autism explained by use of non-interactive media. Gagnon, D., Ostrolenk, A. and Mottron, L. (2026), Early manifestations of unexpected bilingualism in minimally verbal autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatr, 67: 652-662. doi.org/10.1111/jcpp...

How on earth do we manage to navigate through our social networks? See new paper by Teoh ... & FeldmanHall: Medial temporal lobe encodes cognitive maps of real-world social networks | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Liao L, Fombonne E. Autism Overdiagnosis and Its Harmful Effects. JAMA Pediatr. Published online April 13, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.0400 e.g. self-fulfilling prophecy; resource depletion; loss of precision and trivialising autism.

Attenuated selective attention during visual perspective taking in autism: A combined behavior, ERP, and pupillometry study by Polzer et al. "... altered top-down recruitment during VPT and increased cognitive effort during perspective ratings." acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

So interesting.

Nice! An advance in our knowledge of social cognitive development. 4-yr-olds intuitively understand information flows in social networks doi.org/10.1073/pnas... Young children understand how social connections affect what people know about each other By Chuey, Jara-Ettinger & Gweon

Want to know more about Hans Asperger and his syndrome? You can listen to Ken Barrett's Brainland podcasts with me shows.acast.com/brainland/ep... and with Alice Jolly, author of "The Matchbox Girl" shows.acast.com/brainland/ep...

Chris Frith in conversation about his life and work. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otgz...

6/6 Clinical precision is not ignoring suffering—it strives for the right support to reach the right people through rigorous, evidence-based models.

5/6 We must protect the most vulnerable. By grouping everyone together, we risk overlooking those with significant intellectual disabilities as the public discourse shifts entirely toward "different ways of thinking."

4/6 On "masking": Science requires objective, unbiased observation. Concepts rooted primarily in subjective self-report lack the precision needed for a stable medical category and can lead to circular reasoning.

3/6 Diagnosis must have differential value. Labeling all social struggle or hypersensitivity as "autism" risks missing underlying causes that require entirely different clinical interventions.

2/6 The "spectrum" has expanded to the point of collapse. If a single label covers both profound impairment and those with no intellectual or communicative deficits, it ceases to predict specific biological or medical needs.

1/6 Engaging with critiques of my @TES interview. While I value the lived experience shared, we must distinguish between sociopolitical identity and clinical diagnostic utility. #Autism #Neurodiversity

Excited to see the world's greatest living pianist (IMHO) in May at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Here he is playing Schubert's 'Hungarian Melody' www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjFc...

‘We need to sort this problem out’: Liz Kendall tells MPs on STFC cuts Science secretary assures House of Commons “we strongly back curiosity-led research”, despite impending cuts www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

This makes me feel optimistic for what can be done for children in special education. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Has Broadening the Autism Spectrum Led to Overdiagnosis? | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ment...

An amazing discovery

Western Calligraphy - interestingly different from Eastern Calligraphy

A joy to watch this video of an exceptional Victorian scientist presented by two exceptional modern scientists. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahLt...

A thoughtful response from @dermotcasey.bsky.social to an interview with @utafrith.bsky.social about the expansion of the diagnostic category of "autism"

A fitting celebration of great women www.electricvoicetheatre.co.uk/events/iwd-1...

The autism spectrum has widened to the point of collapse, with important implications for provision in overstreched classrooms. But, as @utafrith.bsky.social points out: "We’re all neurodiverse"... www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

I take very seriously anything that @utafrith.bsky.social says. I'd love to know what @rosisexton.bsky.social thinks about this piece. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Let’s replace the notion of a ‘spectrum’ with clearer groupings of autism, Asbergers and hypersensitivity says @utafrith.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/a83d...

Autism-ness Does Not Exist, but Autism Does. Part 1: A Critic of the “Spectrum” Position Used to Describe, Diagnose, and Research Autism, and Its Alternative By Mottron et al. doi: 10.1177/23969415251404764 Some inconvenient truths about the dimensional (vs categorical) concept of autism.

Super-interesting.

Idyllic