Rebecca Saxe’s work addresses the human brain’s capacity for abstract thought and the origins of ‘theory of mind,’ the ability to understand the beliefs, hopes and plans of other people.
Rebecca Saxe
Professor
Massachussetts Institute of Technology
From this contributor
U.S. agency backtracks on broad interpretation of ‘clinical trial’
Autism researchers need no longer worry that their basic research will become entangled in the red tape associated with clinical trials.
U.S. agency backtracks on broad interpretation of ‘clinical trial’
By
Hannah Furfaro
6 February 2018 | 6 min read
1985 paper on the theory of mind
In 1985, Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan Leslie and Uta Frith reported for the first time that children with autism systematically fail the false belief task.
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Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants
Strips that are thousands of base pairs in length offer better resolution of structural variants and tandem repeats, according to two independent preprints.
Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants
Strips that are thousands of base pairs in length offer better resolution of structural variants and tandem repeats, according to two independent preprints.
By
Natalia Mesa
18 September 2025 | 6 min read
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
Friedemann Zenke’s 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural networks. The innovation reinvigorated the field.
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
Friedemann Zenke’s 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural networks. The innovation reinvigorated the field.
By
Dan Goodman
17 September 2025 | 5 min read
Autism and anxiety insights; and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 15 September.
Autism and anxiety insights; and more
Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 15 September.
By
Jill Adams
16 September 2025 | 2 min read