Extreme Male Brain: Theory of Autism - Essay Example

?(3) Evaluate the evidence in favour of Simon Baron-Cohen’s ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, and discuss the potential weaknesses of this evidence. Overview of the extreme male brain theory of autism The extreme male brain theory of autism is in place to explain the kind of differences that exists between the male and female in terms of development and functioning of the brain such as in their abilities to undertake various academic exercises. Autism as a development disorder is thus used by Baron-Cohen as a reference point in his research on the extreme male brain theory. For Baron-Cohen to say that there is a ‘male brain’ therefore simply means that the male and female are not the same in terms of the structure and functions of their brains (Auyeung et al., 2009). With the introduction of autism as the reference point in working on the male brain theory, the kind of awareness that Baron-Cohen is trying to create is that male children are more prone to autism incidences than females. Out of the general impression created by Baron-Cohen (2002), a lot of research work has actually followed up to confirm or deny the general assertion of the existence of an extreme male brain in the context that it was used. It would also be figured out that the conclusion drawn by Baron-Cohen (2002) was also backed by some research work that had gone on long before him. One of such researches that backed Baron-Cohen’s research is the one conducted by Connellan et al (2000) where the writers laid the claim that “girls and women show greater eye contact than age-matched males.” Since the incidence of autism are closely related to such sociability issues, Baron-Cohen indeed had a lot of justification in pursuing on further to find out if such differences would be generalized to the problem of autism. Specific evidence in favour of Simon Baron-Cohen’s theory The male and female brains are determined prenatally The first evidence that can be laid out in support of the extreme male brain theory by Baron-Cohen (2002) is the fact that the male and female brains are determined prenatally – that is before birth (Cohen, 1999, p.2). What this means is that even before a child is born, doctors are in a position to determine the sex of the child based on certain hormonal developments. This is a clear indication that there is of course a very huge level of difference in the brain’s functions as it is in males from females. In their argument, Auyeung et al. (2010), point out that if not, it will not be able to predetermine the sex of a child based on the development and function of his or her brain. There would indeed be a long standing consequence for such differences in the complexities of the brain at the prenatal stage. One of such is that after birth, people will continue to be limited by the way they should reason, act and function based on the formation of the brains they had at a prenatal stage (Auyeung et al. 2010). At the prenatal stage, one hormone that is highly responsible for their brain development of males is testosterone because it acts directly on the brain. Though this hormone is largely produced in the testes, testosterone has frequently been proposed to have a causal effect on subsequent foetal brain development (Baron-Cohen 1999, p. 27) for males though females have testosterone also. Male and females differ in cognition One other strong evidence in favour of Simon Baron-Cohen’s ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism is the male and female differences in cognition as put forth by Cook and Saucier (2010). For instance there are subject areas that males generally perform better than females. First, it must be noted that the cognitive abilities of children is very important in the discussion of autism. This is because autism is a disorder that is generally associated with functional disability that affected children produce in the exhibition of their cognitive skills. Therefore, any proof of differences in the cognition of males and females would be major evidence to the claim of extreme male brain theory of autism. In his research, Baron-Cohen (2002) found that in cognition tasks such as language acquisition, social judgment, measure of empathy and cooperation, rapid identification of matching items and fine motor skills, females have an upper hand than males (p 252). Meanwhile, a lot of the difficulties that children with autism express have to do with some of these areas of ability such as concentrating on a particular thing for a long time. What this means is that, if even in normal male and female children, male children are going to slug behind in the performance of some of these skills, then certainly when it comes to the specified area of autism, it is clear that males are going to have in mastering some of these tasks (Ho, Todd, and Constantino, 2005). Differences in male population with autism One other argument that supports the assertion of male brain theory has to do with the fact that the male population with autism far outnumber that of females (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Bolton, Stott &Goodyer, 1996). This is clear-cut evidence that the male and female brains could not be said to be the same in function and complexity for if indeed they did, there would have been the same level of occurrence of autism in males as there is in females. As a dysfunction, if autism related to any part of the human anatomy other than the brain, there could have been more to argue about in terms of the relation of population of males with autism to the extreme male theory of autism. In a recent research, Knickmeyer, (2006) found out that since the fundamental idea behind Simon Baron-Cohen’s ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism has to be a justification that the male and female brains are different in functionality, complexity and composition, it is just evident that when counting the number of males who have a brain-related disorder, they will be more than their female counterparts. Weaknesses of evidence Despite the numerous justifications and evidence given to back the theory put forth by Baron-Cohen (2002), there remain certain basic concepts of the evidence that could be described as weaknesses of the argument. One of such has to do with the lateralization, which has to do with the shifting of the function of the brain towards the left hemisphere of the brain as opposed to the right hemisphere. Knickmeyer, Wheelwright and Baron-Cohen, 2008). Early researches show that males are indeed strongly lateralized than their female counterparts. Knowing that lateralisation is closely related to functionalities such as speech and language, handedeness, movement and sensation, it would just be expected that among children with autism, the males would take advantage of the imbalance in levels of lateralisation, which favour them to perform better in the skills named than females with autism. Indeed, it is because split brain hypothesis has been widely discredited that lateralisation is used as a weakness of Baron-Cohen’s eveidnec. Unfortunately, there is no such correlation and the studies undertaken by Baron-Cohen (2002) did not account for the inadequacies and inconsistencies (Wheelwright, 2006). In conclusion, even though there may be some academic justification of the male brain theory, there still is more room for further research to further consolidate the findings and conclusions put forth by Baron-Cohen (2002). REFERENCE LIST Auyeung et al. (2009). The Children’s Empathy Quotient and Systemizing Quotient: Sex Differences in Typical Development and in Autism Spectrum Conditions. Journal of Autism Development Disorder (2009) 39:1509–1521. Auyeung et al. (2010).Foetal testosterone and autistic traits in 18 to 24-month-old children.Molecular Autism 2010, 1:11 Baron-Cohen (2002).The extreme-male-brain theory of autism. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002 Baron-Cohen, S, Wheelwright, S, Bolton, P, Stott, C, &Goodyer, I. Autism and engineering: Is there a link? University Press: Cambridge. Baron-Cohen, S. (1999).The extreme-male-brain theory of autism. Accessed May 4, 2012 from http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/docs/papers/1999_bc_extrememalebrain.pdf Connellan et al (2000). Sex differences in human neonatal social perception.Infant Behavior& Development 23 (2000) 113–118. Cook, C. M. and Saucier, D. M (2010).Mental rotation, targeting ability and Baron-Cohen’s Empathizing–Systemizing Theory of Sex Differences.Personality and Individual Differences 49 (2010) 712–716 Satz, P, Soper, H, Orsini, D, Henry, R, &Zvi, J, (1985). Handedness subtypes in autism. Psychiatric Annals, 15, 447-451. Ho, A., Todd, R. D,andConstantino, J. N. (2005). Brief Report: Autistic Traits in Twins Vs. Non-Twins—A Preliminary Study.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 35, No. 1, February 2005 Knickmeyer, R. (2006). Androgens and autistic traits: A study of individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior 50 (2006) 148–153. Knickmeyer R. C., Wheelwright S. and Baron-Cohen S. B. (2008). Sex-typical Play: Masculinization/Defeminization in Girls with an Autism Spectrum Condition. Journal of Autism Development Disorder (2008) 38:1028–1035.\ Wheelwright S et al. (2006).PredictingAutismSpectrumQuotient (AQ) from the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R) and Empathy Quotient (EQ). 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