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Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

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Handbook of Medical Neuropsychology

Abstract

Leo Kanner, an Austrian born American psychiatrist, first described autism in 1943 [1]. His observations of a small group of children with behavioral symptoms of social withdrawal, impaired language/communication, and obsession with sameness led to recognition of autism as a specific pervasive developmental disorder. At about the same time, Austrian psychiatrist Hans Asperger independently described similar symptoms in a small group of children except that the “Asperger” children were high functioning with better language and cognitive skills than those described by Kanner [2]. Both Kanner and Asperger used the word autistic to describe the pathology in the children they observed – a term rooted in the Greek “autos” (self) and coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler to describe symptoms in his schizophrenic patients. Before Kanner and Asperger defined autism as a specific disorder, children with autistic symptoms were most likely classed and treated as mentally retarded or, if they were high functioning, perhaps as schizophrenic.

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  1. Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jeanne Townsend & Marissa Westerfield

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  1. Jeanne Townsend
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  2. Marissa Westerfield
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Correspondence to Jeanne Townsend .

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  1. Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Market Street 3535, Philadelphia, 19104, USA

    Carol L. Armstrong

  2. Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, 15213, USA

    Lisa Morrow

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Townsend, J., Westerfield, M. (2010). Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. In: Armstrong, C., Morrow, L. (eds) Handbook of Medical Neuropsychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1364-7_10

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