title: Understanding self and others: from origins to disorders.
abstract: In order to interpret and engage with the social world, individuals must understand how they relate to others. Self-other understanding forms the backbone of social cognition and is a central concept explored by research into basic processes such as action perception and empathy, as well as research on more sophisticated social behaviours such as cooperation and intergroup interaction. This theme issue integrates the latest research into self-other understanding from evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry. By gathering perspectives from a diverse range of disciplines, the contributions showcase ways in which research in these areas both informs and is informed by approaches spanning the biological and social sciences, thus deepening our understanding of how we relate to others in a social world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, King's College London, London, UK caroline.catmur@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6996-4295
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Catmur
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
authors.forename: Emily S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1671-5698
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK.
authors.forename: Harriet
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9461-043X
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Over
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003071:Cognition; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012919:Social Behavior; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: autism; empathy; self–other distinction; social cognition; social motivation; social neuroscience