Professor Uta Frith FBA, FmedSci, FRS, ML
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
University College London
17 Queen Square
London WC1N 3AR
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 7679 1177
Fax: 020 7813 2835
email: /

Qualifications

Vordiplom in Psychology (1964), Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken.

Diploma in Abnormal Psychology (1966), Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.

Ph.D. in Psychology (1968), Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.

Posts Held

2007 – Aarhus University Research Foundation Professor

2006 – Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London

1996 - 2006 Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London

1968 - 2006 MRC Scientist.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

2012 Honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE)

2012 Foreign Associate National Adademy of Sciences

2012 Honorary Doctorate Cambridge University

2010 Mind & Brain Prize University of Turin

2010 Experimental Psychology Society Bartlett Lecture

2009 European Latsis Prize “Brain and Mind” jointly with Chris Frith

2009 BPS Research Board Lifetime Achievement Award

2009 Mitglied der DeutschenAkademie der NaturforscherLeopoldina

2008 Honorary Fellow Newnham College Cambridge

2008 UKRC Women of Outstanding Achievement in SET

2008 Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Göteborg

2007 Lifetime Achievement Award International Association for Autism Research

2007 Samuel T. Orton Award International Dyslexia Association

2007 Honorary Fellow UCL

2007 Honorary Doctorate Nottingham University

2006 Society for Educational Studies Book Prize with SJ Blakemore for “The Learning Brain”

2006 Honorary Fellow British Psychological Society

2006 President Experimental Psychology Society

2005 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society

2005 Burghölzli Award, University of Zurich Medical School

2004 Robert Sommer Award, University of Giessen Medical School

2004 Honorary Doctorate, University of York

2004 Honorary Doctorate, University of Palermo

2003 Jean Louis Signoret Prize of the Ipsen Foundation for Neuropsychology

2001 Elected Fellow of the British Academy.

2001 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

2000 Honorary Doctorate, University of St Andrews.

1998 Honorary Doctorate, University of Göteborg, Sweden.

1992 Elected Member of the Academia Europaea.

1990 The President’s Award of the British Psychological Society for distinguished contributions

to psychological knowledge.

Biosketch

Uta Frith trained in experimental and clinical psychology at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrückenand at University of London's Institute of Psychiatry.After completing her Ph.D. (‘Pattern detection in autism’) in 1968, she became a research scientist sponsored by the Medical Research Council and affiliated to UCL. She is now Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Uta Frith is known for her workonneuro-developmental disorders, inparticular, autism and dyslexia. In both fields she has pioneered an approach that combines experimental, neuropsychological and neuroscientific methods. She has pioneered and contributed to the major theories explaining these disorders with the aim of relating the underlying cognitive causes of these disorders to specific brain systems.

ACADEMIC SERVICE: Selection of Peer Review Committees

  • Member of co-ordinating committee of European Science Foundation Network on Literacy, 1990-1994.
  • Member of the MRC Mental Health and Neurosciences Board, 1996-1999.
  • Member of MRC Autism Review group and chair of Psychology and Psychiatry subgroup, 2001 – 2002
  • Member of Sectional Committee 6 of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2001-2003
  • Member of the Communications and Activities Committee of the British Academy 2002 –2006
  • Editorial board member of: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Member of Royal Society Evaluation Panel: subcommittee to the Audit committee 2006- 2009
  • Elected Member of Council of the Royal Society 2006 - 2007
  • Chair of Royal Society Library Committee 2008–2012
  • Member of Royal Society Sectional Committee 2010-2013
  • Chair of British Academy Psychology Section 2008-2011
  • Chair of Royal Society Working Group on Impact of Neuroscience on Education 2009-2011

SELECTED Keynote lectures since 2002

  • Studies of Brain and Mind. Lecture series in Umea, Stockholm, Lund and Gothenburg, March and April 2002 as distinguished lecturer of the Swedish Neuropsychology Society
  • Comparing Theories of Dyslexia. Second Curt von Euler Lecture Muenchen 2002 Rodin Society Conference Muenchen, September 2002
  • Autism in History. Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, Newnham College, Cambridge, May 2003
  • The Neuropsychology of Autism. 9th Annual Jeeves Lecture, St. Andrews, April 2005
  • The effect of orthography on reading and reading problems. S.T. Orton Award Lecture. Meeting of the International Dyslexia Association, Dallas November 2007
  • Autism and the Absent Self. Plenary lecture May 2007, Seattle Meeting of IMFAR
  • What autism teaches us about social cognition. John Damian Lecture, Stirling, October 2008
  • Autism: Insights from Research to Practice. Otto Wolf Lecture, Institute of Child Health, January 2009
  • How our social brain modifies our behaviour. Herbert Spencer Lecture, March 2009 Oxford
  • Why we need cognitive explanations of autism. Bartlett Lecture, EPS meeting January 2010 London
  • What is cognitive and what is social in social cognition.Lecture linked to the BPS Lifetime Achievement Award, 2011 Glasgow

Uta Frith

60 selected publications 1969 – 2012

Books in Bold

  1. Aurnhammer-Frith, U. (1969). Emphasis and meaning in recall in normal and autistic children. Language and Speech, 12, 29-38.
  2. Frith, U. (1971). Why do children reverse letters? British Journal of Psychology, 62, 459-468.
  3. Frith, U. (1980). Cognitive Processes in Spelling. London: Academic Press.
  4. Frith, U. (1981). Experimental approaches to developmental dyslexia: An introduction. Psychological Research, 43, 97-109.
  5. Frith, U., & Snowling, M. (1983). Reading for meaning and reading for sound in autistic and dyslexic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1, 329-342.
  6. Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1983). An islet of ability in autistic children: a research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 24, 613-620.
  7. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? Cognition, 21, 37-46.
  8. Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In K. Patterson, J. Marshall, & M. Coltheart (Eds.), Surface Dyslexia, Neuropsychological and Cognitive Studies of Phonological Reading. (pp. 301-330). London: Erlbaum.
  9. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U. (1986). Mechanical, behavioural and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 113-125.
  10. Frith, U. (1986). A developmental framework for developmental dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 36, 69-81.
  11. Snowling, M., & Frith, U. (1986). Comprehension in "hyperlexic" readers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 42, 392-415.
  12. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Oxford: Blackwell.
  13. Perner, J., Frith, U., Leslie, A.M., & Leekam, S. (1989). Explorations of the autistic child's theory of mind: Knowledge, belief and communication. Child Development, 60, 689-700.
  14. Frith, U. (1991). Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  15. Frith, U., Morton, J., & Leslie, A.M. (1991). The cognitive basis of a biological disorder: autism. Trends in Neurosciences, 14, 433-438.
  16. Sodian, B., & Frith, U. (1992). Deception and sabotage in autistic, retarded and normal children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 591-605.
  17. Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1993). Why do autistic individuals show superior performance on the block design task? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 1351-1364.
  18. Frith, U., Happé, F., & Siddons, F. (1994). Autism and theory of mind in everyday life. Social Development, 2, 108-124.
  19. Fletcher, P., Happé, F., Frith, U., Baker, S., Dolan, R., Frackowiak, R., & Frith, C.D. (1995). Other minds in the brain: A functional imaging study of 'theory of mind' in story comprehension. Cognition, 57, 109-128.
  20. Morton, J., & Frith, U. (1995). Causal modeling: Structural approaches to developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental Psychopathology. (pp. 357-390). New York: Wiley.
  21. Paulesu, E., Frith, U., Snowling, M., Gallagher, A., Morris, J., Frackowiak, R., & Frith, C.D. (1996). Is developmental dyslexia a disconnection syndrome? Evidence from PET scanning. Brain, 119, 143-158.
  22. Happé, F., & Frith, U. (1996). The neuropsychology of autism. Brain, 19, 1377-1400.
  23. Landerl, K., Wimmer, H., & Frith, U. (1997). The impact of orthographic consistency on dyslexia: A German-English comparison. Cognition, 63, 315-334.
  24. Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1998). Why specific developmental disorders are not specific: On-line and developmental effect in autism and dyslexia. Developmental Science, 1, 267-272.
  25. Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1999). Theory of mind and self consciousness: What is it like to be autistic? Mind and Language, 14, 1-22.
  26. Frith, U. (1999). Paradoxes in the definition of dyslexia. Dyslexia, 5, 192-214.
  27. Frith, C. D., & Frith, U. (1999) Interacting minds - A biological basis. Science, 286, 1692-1695.
  28. Paulesu, E., McCrory, E., Fazio, F., Menoncello, L., Brunswick, N., Cappa, S.F., Cotelli, M., Cossu, G., Corte, F., Lorusso, M., Pesenti, S., Gallagher, A., Perani, D., Price, C., Frith, C.D. & Frith, U. (2000). A cultural effect on brain function. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 91-96.
  29. Scheuffgen, K., Happé, F., Anderson, M. & Frith, U. (2000). High “Intelligence”, low “IQ”? Speed of processing and measured IQ in children with autism. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 83-90.
  30. Abell, F., Happé, F. & Frith, U. (2000) Do triangles play tricks? Attribution of mental states to animated shapes in normal and abnormal development. Journal of Cognitive Development, 15, 1-20.
  31. Castelli, F., Happé, F., Frith, U. & Frith, C. (2000) Movement and mind: A functional imaging study of perception and interpretation of complex intentional movement patterns. NeuroImage, 12, 314-325.
  32. Houston, R. & Frith, U. (2000). Autism in history: The case of Hugh Blair of Borgue. Oxford: Blackwell.
  33. Paulesu, E., Démonet, J., Fazio, F., McCrory, E., Chanoine, V., Brunswick, N., Cappa, S., Cossu, G., Habib, M., Frith, C., Frith U. (2001). Dyslexia: Cultural Diversity and Biological Unity. Science, 291, 2165-2167.
  34. Frith, U. & Frith, C. (2001). The biological basis of social interaction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(5), 151-155.
  35. Kampe, K., Frith, C. D., Dolan, R. J., Frith, U. (2001). Attraction and gaze – the reward value of social stimuli. Nature, 413, 589.
  36. Frith, U. (2001). Mind blindness and the brain in Autism. Neuron, 32, 969-979.
  37. Castelli, F., Frith, C.D., Happé, F. & Frith, U. (2002) Autism, Asperger syndrome and brain mechanisms for the attribution of mental states to animated shapes. Brain, 125, 1839-1849.
  38. Ramus, F., Rosen, S, Dakin, S., Day, B.L., Castellote, J.M., White, S. & Frith, U. (2003) Theories of developmental dyslexia; insights from a multiple case study. Brain, 126, 841-865
  39. Kampe, K., Frith, C.D. & Frith, U. (2003) "Hey John" - Signals Conveying Communicative Intention towards the Self Activate Brain Regions Associated with Mentalizing Regardless of Modality. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 5258-5263
  40. Frith, U. (2004) Emmanuel Miller lecture: Confusions and controversies about Asperger syndrome, Journal of Child Psychology an Psychiatry, 45, 672-682.
  41. Blakemore, S.J. and Frith, U. (2005) The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education. Oxford: Blackwell
  42. Frith, U. and de Vignemont F. (2005) Egocentrism, allocentrism and Asperger syndrome. Consciousness and Cognition,14 (4), 719-738
  43. Silani, G., Frith, U.,.Demonet, J.-F, Fazio, F., Perani, D. C. Price, C., Frith, C.D, and Paulesu, E. (2005) Brain abnormalities underlying altered activation in dyslexia: a voxel based morphometric study, Brain,128, 2453-61
  44. Dakin, S. & Frith, U. (2005) Vagaries of visual perception in autism. Neuron, 48, 497- 507
  45. White, S., Hill, E., Winston, J. and Frith, U. (in 2006) An islet of social ability in Asperger syndrome: Stereotypic attribution to faces, Brain and Cognition, 61(1), 69-77
  46. Happé, F. and Frith, U. (2006) The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 5-25
  47. Frith, C.D., Frith, U. (2006) The neural basis of mentalizing. Neuron, 50(4) 531-4
  48. Bird, G., Catmur, C. Silani, G., Frith, C., Frith, U. (2006) Attention does not modulate neural responses to social stimuli in autism spectrum disorders, Neuroimage, 31(4), 1614-24
  49. Hamilton, A.F.d.C., Brindley, R.M., Frith, U. (2007) How valid is the mirror neuron hypothesis for autism? Neuropsychologia, 45 (8): 1859-1868
  50. Hirschfeld L, Bartmess E, White S & Frith U (2007). Can autistic children predict behavior by social stereotypes? Current Biology, 17(12):R451-2
  51. Silani, G., Bird, G., Brindley, R., Singer, T., Frith, C., Frith, U. (2008) Levels of emotional awareness and autism: an fMRI study,Social Neuroscience, 3(2), 97-112
  52. Frith, U. (2008) A Very Short Introduction to Autism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  53. Klein, A. M., Zwickel, J., Prinz, W., Frith, U. (2009) Animated Triangles: An eye tracking investigation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(6), 1189 - 97
  54. Happé, F. and Frith, U. (2009) The beautiful otherness of the autistic mind. Introduction to Special Issue on Autism and Talent. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364(1522) 1345-50
  55. Senju, A., Southgate, V., White, S. and Frith, U. (2009) Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous Theory of Mind in Asperger Syndrome, Science, 325(5942):883-5
  56. Hamilton, A., Brindley, R., Frith, U. (2009) Visual perspective taking impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Cognition,113(1):37-44
  57. Frith, U., Frith, C. (2010) The social brain: allowing humans to boldly go where no other species has been. Philos Trans R SocLond B Biol Sci. 12;365(1537):165-76
  58. Bird, G., Silani, G., Brindley, R., White, S. Frith, U. & Singer, T. (2010) Empathic Brain responses in insula are modulated by levels of alexithymia but not autism. Brain, 133(Pt 5):1515-25
  59. Tennie C, Frith U, Frith CD. (2010) Reputation management in the age of the world-wide web. Trends CognSci, 14, 482-8
  60. Frith, C & Frith, U (2012) Mechanisms of Social Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 287-313

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