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

A step towards biomarkers for ADHD. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2026.0001 Mapping ADHD Heterogeneity and Biotypes by Topological Deviations in Morphometric Similarity Networks ...Results of this case-control study reveal ... 3 distinct ADHD biotypes with unique clinical-neural profiles.

Very cool paper relevant to social imitation www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This paper is a model of clarity! It successfully argues that innately biased language learning mechanisms are more plausible than innate language knowledge. Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is great. I love to see evidence for 'factory settings' of cognitive mechanisms that enable learning. Newborn Infants Selectively Attend to Points That Refer to Objects - Geraci - 2026 - Developmental Science - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

An exciting advance in developmental psychology! Toddlers expect ingroup loyalty to override personal preferences when outgroups are present | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This review is so good, it makes me eager to recommend this book by Deborah Cohen: Are health influencers making us sick? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Just what is needed today.

Born #OnThisDay in 1821 was Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the USA and the first woman on the medical register in the UK. She was a committed social reformer and helped found the London School of Medicine for Women. #WomenInSTEM

❄️🎣 What ice-fishing competitions reveal about human decision-making. New paper in @science.org by researchers from @mpib-berlin.bsky.social, @scioi.bsky.social, and the University of Eastern Finland. 👉 Read more: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/newsroom/new... 📄 Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A recent interview with Chris Frith @cdfrith.bsky.social www.popularmechanics.com/science/a700...

Industrial heating accounts for around 14% of UK emissions, yet approximately half of the energy used in UK industry is lost as waste heat. Capturing and re-using this could help decarbonise industry, reduce energy demand and more. Read the full report here: royalsociety.org/news-resourc...

Hmm, interesting and a bit disturbing too.

A very important review.

Dyslexia isn’t just about reading and writing. Prof Maggie Snowling explains how reading disorders originate in the language system, and why many children also struggle with oral language. Read the full blog to learn more. https://bit.ly/4qr5SlY

Painted in 1913, Paul Nash gave this picture the ultimate simplicity of a title, 'A Drawing.' The elm trees marked the boundary of his family's home at Wood Lane House, Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire. Trees always held a spiritual quality for him.

A very neat experiment that uncovers developmental differences: Development of Uncertainty Sensitivity: Early Competence or Protracted Development? - Wan & Sloutsky 2026 - Developmental Science - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Great to see that someone decided to make a difference in putting quality over quantity and promoting slow science www.nature.com/articles/d41...

There are different causes for under-confidence and different remedies.

Good to watch this video on a day like today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkDM...