<P>This volume covers several perspectives on autism which bring together the most recent scientific views of the nature of this disorder. A number of themes organize major developments and emerging areas in autism:</P><UL><LI>Cognitive and neural systems development: how autism arises in the behavior and thought of very young children.</LI><LI>Discovering brain mechanisms underlying social and cognitive deficits in autism: how we can explain "social awkwardness" and poor language comprehension in terms of malfunctions of brain mechanisms, revealed by fMRI studies of people with autism.</LI><LI>Integrating information about genes, brain, and biological mechanisms with behavioral evidence.</LI><LI>Linking the science of autism with lives lived: how the new information about autism impacts people with autism and real-world considerations.</LI></UL>