What causes autism? Is it a genetic disorder, or due to some unknown environmental hazard? Are we facing an autism epidemic? What are the main symptoms, and how does it relate to Asperger syndrome?

Everyone has heard of autism, but the disorder itself is little understood. It has captured the public imagination through films and novels portraying individuals with baffling combinations of disability and extraordinary talent, and yet the reality is more often that it places a heavy burden on sufferers and their families.

This Very Short Introduction offers a clear statement on what is currently known about autism and Asperger syndrome. Explaining the vast array of different conditions that hide behind these two labels, and looking at symptoms from the full spectrum of autistic disorders, it explores the possible causes for the apparent rise in autism and also evaluates the links with neuroscience, psychology, brain development, genetics, and environmental causes including MMR and Thimerosal. This short, authoritative, and accessible book also explores the psychology behind social impairment and savantism, and throughout, sheds light on what it is like to live inside the mind of the sufferer.

• Explains the vast array of different conditions that hide behind the two labels, autism and Asperger syndrome
• Explores the links with neuroscience, psychology, brain development, and genetics
• Looks at controversial issues such as MMR and Thimerosal, and whether there really has been a genuine rise in autism spectrum disorders
• Highly authoritative: Uta Frith is one of the founding researchers in the field of autism
• Describes some of the extraordinary 'savant' abilities of people from the autistic spectrum
• Interweaves the science with a focus on the everyday, practical issues facing people with an autistic condition, to shed light on what it is like to live inside the mind of the sufferer.
• Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over two million copies sold worldwide

 Chapter 1   The autism spectrum

Chapter 2   Causes of autism

Chapter 3   Explaining the social impairment

Chapter 4   Explaining the communication impairment

Chapter 5   Explaining islets of ability

Chapter 6   Explaining problems in everyday living

Chapter 7   Can we explain everything at once?