•  108
    Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain
    with Christopher Badcock
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (3): 241-261. 2008.
    Autistic-spectrum conditions and psychotic-spectrum conditions (mainly schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression) represent two major suites of disorders of human cognition, affect, and behavior that involve altered development and function of the social brain. We describe evidence that a large set of phenotypic traits exhibit diametrically opposite phenotypes in autistic-spectrum versus psychotic-spectrum conditions, with a focus on schizophrenia. This suite of traits is inter-corre…Read more
  •  52
    The natural selection of psychosis
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (4): 410-411. 2006.
    Diverse evidence from genomics, epidemiology, neurophysiology, psychology, and evolutionary biology converges on simple general mechanisms, based on negative secondary effects of strong selection, for how mental disorders such as psychosis have evolved and how they are sustained. (Published Online November 9 2006).
  •  46
    The evolutionary social brain: From genes to psychiatric conditions
    with Christopher Badcock
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (3): 284-320. 2008.
    The commentaries on our target article, reflect the multidisciplinary yet highly fragmented state of current studies of human social cognition. Progress in our understanding of the human social brain must come from studies that integrate across diverse analytic levels, using conceptual frameworks grounded in evolutionary biology
  •  23
    The Insectan Apes
    Human Nature 25 (1): 6-27. 2014.
    I present evidence that humans have evolved convergently to social insects with regard to a large suite of social, ecological, and reproductive phenotypes. Convergences between humans and social insects include: (1) groups with genetically and environmentally defined structures; (2) extensive divisions of labor; (3) specialization of a relatively restricted set of females for reproduction, with enhanced fertility; (4) extensive extramaternal care; (5) within-group food sharing; (6) generalized d…Read more
  •  23
    Basic functional trade-offs in cognition: An integrative framework
    with Marco Del Giudice
    Cognition 179 (C): 56-70. 2018.
  •  17
    Cognitive trade-offs and the costs of resilience
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38. 2015.
  •  16
    Imagination in human social cognition, autism, and psychotic-affective conditions
    with Emma Leach, Natalie Dinsdale, Mikael Mokkonen, and Peter Hurd
    Cognition 150 (C): 181-199. 2016.
  •  8
    Video games are popular and ubiquitous aspects of human culture, but their relationships to psychological and neurophysiological traits have yet to be analyzed in social-evolutionary frameworks. We examined the relationships of video game usage, motivations, and preferences with autistic and schizotypal traits and two aspects of neurophysiology, reaction time and targeting time. Participants completed the Autism Quotient, Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, a Video Game Usage Questionnaire, a…Read more
  •  8
    I describe and explain evidence regarding a key role for autism spectrum cognition in human technology; tradeoffs of autistic cognition with social skills; and a model of how cumulative technological culture evolves. This model involves positive feedback whereby increased technical complexity selects for enhanced social learning of mechanistic concepts and skills, leading to further advances in technology.