title: Theories of autism.
abstract: The purpose of the present paper was to review psychological theories of autism, and to integrate these theories with neurobiological findings. Cognitive, theory of mind, language and coherence theories were identified, and briefly reviewed. Psychological theories were found not to account for the rigid/repetitive behaviours universally described in autistic subjects, and underlying neurobiological systems were identified. When the developing brain encounters constrained connectivity, it evolves an abnormal organization, the features of which may be best explained by a developmental failure of neural connectivity, where high local connectivity develops in tandem with low long-range connectivity, resulting in constricted repetitive behaviours.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales and Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia. f.levy@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D009770:Obsessive Behavior / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception