Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 31, Issue 03  

Open Peer Commentary

Psychosis and autism as two developmental windows on a disordered social brain

Sophie van Rijna1, Hanna Swaaba1 and André Alemana2

a1 Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Centre for the Study of Developmental Disorders, Leiden University, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands

a2 BCN Neuroimaging Center, University of Gröningen, 9713 AW Gröningen, The Netherlands srijn@fsw.leidenuniv.nl hswaab@fsw.leidenuniv.nl a.aleman@med.umcg.nl

Abstract

With regard to social-cognitive deficits in autism and psychosis, Crespi & Badcock's (C&B's) theory does not incorporate the developmental context of the disorders. We propose that there is significant overlap in social-cognitive impairments, but that the exact manifestation of social-cognitive deficits is highly dependent on the dynamics of cognitive development and hence different in autism as compared to psychosis.