Uta Frith


Uta Frith studied experimental psychology at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken and trained in clinical psychology at the University of London’s Institute of Psychiatry She completed her Ph.D. thesis on autism in 1968 and from then on has worked as a research scientist funded mainly by the Medical Research Council UK. She has been Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark from 2007-2015. She is now Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Autism and dyslexia have been her main focus of research. In both fields she has pioneered an experimental neuropsychological approach. She has contributed some of the major theories explaining these disorders and has identified specific deficits in underlying cognitive mechanisms and their basis in the brain. She has published some 250 papers and books, and in 2014 she was listed by the APA as among the 200 most eminent psychologists of the modern era.
In the last few years she has increased her work in science communication, and in championing women in science.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.

Autism-linked genes alter sleep behavior, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 13 April.

By Jill Adams
14 April 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of a monkey pushing a button.

This paper changed my life: Erin Calipari ponders the nuances of rewarding and aversive stimuli

A 1960s study by Kelleher and Morse found that lever pressing in squirrel monkeys depended not on whether they received a reward or shock, but on the rules of the task. This taught Calipari to think deeply about factors that influence how behavior is generated and maintained.

By Erin Calipari
14 April 2026 | 5 min read
Illustration of a sheet of paper with a topography map-like pattern on it.

Why neural foundation models work, and what they might—and might not—teach us about the brain

These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?

By Juan Gallego
13 April 2026 | 8 min read