Uta Frith | |
|---|---|
 Frith at theRoyal Society, 2012 | |
| Born | Uta Aurnhammer (1941-05-25)25 May 1941 (age 84) Rockenhausen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany |
| Citizenship |
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| Spouse | Chris Frith |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
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| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Thesis | Pattern Detection in Normal and Autistic Children (1968) |
| Doctoral advisor | Neil O'Connor |
| Other advisor | Beate Hermelin |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Psychologist |
| Institutions | University College London (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) |
| Notable students | |
| Main interests | |
| Website | Official website |
Dame Uta Frith (néeAurnhammer; born 25 May 1941[2]) is a German-Britishdevelopmental psychologist and emeritus professor in cognitive development at theInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience atUniversity College London (UCL). She pioneered much of the current research intoautism[3][4][5][6][7] anddyslexia.[8][9] Her bookAutism: Explaining the Enigma[10][11] introduced thecognitive neuroscience of autism. She is credited with creating theSally–Anne test along with fellow scientistsAlan Leslie andSimon Baron-Cohen.[12][13] Among students she has mentored areTony Attwood,Maggie Snowling,Simon Baron-Cohen andFrancesca Happé.
Uta Aurnhammer was born inRockenhausen, a small town in the hills betweenLuxembourg andMannheim in Germany. She attendedSaarland University inSaarbrücken with her initial plan for her education being in art history, but changed to experimental psychology after learning of its empirical nature.[14] She was inspired by the work of psychologist,Hans Eysenck (who debunkedpsychoanalysis)[15] and decided to train inclinical psychology at theInstitute of Psychiatry in London.[16] While at the institute, she was taught byJack Rachman,[16] one of the pioneers of behaviour therapy. She went on to complete her Doctor of Philosophy, on pattern detection inautistic children, in 1968.[17][18][19][16][20]
Frith was mentored, during her early career, byNeil O'Connor andBeate Hermelin and has described them as pioneers in the field ofautism.[21]
Frith's research paved the way for the recognition of atheory of mind deficit in autism.[22] In 1985, while she was a member of the Medical Research Council's Cognitive Development Unit (MRC-CDU) in London, she published withAlan M. Leslie andSimon Baron-Cohen the article "Does the autistic child have a 'theory of mind'?",[23] which proposed that people with autism have specific difficulties understanding other people'sbeliefs and desires. This paper used afalse-belief task invented by Joseph Perner in 1983. Frith, and her colleagues,[24] created two theories of autism. The first is "lack of implicit mentalizing",[25] a lack of the ability to track others' mental state with a basis in the brain.[26] The second is "weak central coherence"[27] by which she suggested that individuals with autism are better than neurotypical people at processing details, but worse at integrating information from many different sources.[28] Frith was one of the first neuroscientists to recognize autism "as a condition of the brain rather than the result of cold parenting."[29]
She was one of the first people in the UK to studyAsperger syndrome,[30] at MRC-CDU London. Her work also focused on reading development, spelling and dyslexia.[16] Frith attacked the theory that dyslexia was linked to lack of intelligence[31] or caused by sensorimotor impairments.[32] In her book on spelling,[8] she pointed out that some people can be perfectly competent readers, but extremely poor spellers, a group of dyslexics not recognised before.[16] Her research, along with that ofMaggie Snowling, showed that people with dyslexia tend to struggle with phonological processing.[33][31] In 1995 Frith, Paulesu, Snowling and colleagues conducted one of the first brain imaging studies with dyslexic adults showing that, while completing tasks requiring phonological processing, people with dyslexia show a lack of functional connectivity within the language network of the brain.[34]
Frith has been supported throughout her career by theMedical Research Council atUniversity College London.[35] She was an active collaborator at the Interacting Minds Centre[36] atAarhus University in Denmark. The goal of the centre is to provide a trans-disciplinary platform, upon which the many aspects of human interaction may be studied. The project is based in part on a paper written withChris Frith: "Interacting Minds – a Biological Basis".[37]
Among students she has mentored areTony Attwood,[38]Maggie Snowling,[39]Simon Baron-Cohen[40] andFrancesca Happé.[41]
Frith has encouraged the advancement ofwomen in science, in part by developing a support network called Science & Shopping,[42] which she hopes will "encourage women to share ideas and information that are inspiring and fun."[43] She also co-founded the UCL Women[44] network, "a grassroots networking and social organization for academic staff (postdocs and above) inSTEM at UCL", in January 2013.[45] In 2015 she was named chair of theRoyal Society's Diversity Committee,[46] during which time she wrote about unconscious bias and how it affects which scientists receive grants.[47]
On 11 May 2012 Frith appeared as a guest on the American PBSCharlie Rose television interview show.[48] On 4 December she appeared as a guest on the "Brain" episode ofBBC Two'sDara Ó Briain's Science Club.[49]
On 1 March 2013, she was the guest onBBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs.[50] In 2013 Frith wrote on the visibility of women in science, by promoting an exhibition on female scientist portraits at The Royal Society.[51]
From 31 March to 4 April 2014, to coincide withWorld Autism Awareness Day on 2 April, she was the guest of Sarah Walker onBBC Radio 3'sEssential Classics.[52] On 1 April 2014, she featured in "Living with Autism", an episode of theBBCHorizon documentary series.[53] On 26 August 2015, she presented theHorizon episode entitled "OCD: A Monster in my Mind".[54] On 29 August 2017, she presented theHorizon episode entitled "What Makes a Psychopath?".[55]
On 13 December 2017, she gave an interview to theAssociation for Child and Adolescent Mental Health,[56] in which she talked about her early life and her passion for autism research in children.[13]
Frith was elected aFellow of the British Academy in 2001, aFellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001,a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, anHonorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 2006, an Honorary Fellow of University College London in 2007, a member of the GermanAcademy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2008, anHonorary Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge in 2008, aForeign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and a member of theEuropean Molecular Biology Organisation in 2014.[57] She was President of the Experimental Psychology Society in 2006 and 2007.[58] Frith also received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Bath.
In 2009, Frith and her husband, Chris, jointly received theEuropean Latsis Prize[59] for their contribution to understanding the human mind and brain,[59] and in 2010 she was awarded theMind & Brain Prize.[60] She received aWilliam James Fellow Award in 2013.[24] In 2014, she and her husband won theJean Nicod Prize, for their work on social cognition.[61]
In 2012, Frith became anHonorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), which was made substantive on 4 April 2019[62] after the German Government permitted dual British/German nationality.[63] This allowed her to be called Dame Uta. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's100 Women.[64]
Frith marriedChris Frith in 1966.[65] He is now professor emeritus at theWellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging atUniversity College London. In 2008 a double portrait was painted by Emma Wesley.[66] They have two sons.[67] Working with their son Alex Frith and illustrator Daniel Locke, Frith and her husband produced the graphic novel 'Two Heads: Where Two Neuroscientists Explore How Our Brains Work with Other Brains'[68] in 2022. This combined an introduction to neuroscience and social cognition, with their own personal and professional experiences throughout their careers.[69]
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