Social relatedness and empathy are key parts of our evolutionary heritage; extremely poor social skills are likely to yield devastating life consequences. This lecture discusses altruism and the controversial topic of group selection; theory of mind, the mental module, emerging during the preschool years; and autism, the condition in which children show social isolation, language abnormalities, and highly restricted interests from the fi rst years of life. The autism “epidemic,” distinctions from Asperger’s disorder, the high heritability of this condition, and the effects of early behavioral interventions are also covered.
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Ready to Watch Origins of the human mind, Season 1, Episode 20?