I use brain scanners to see how people understand each other’s everyday actions, and if people with autism find it hard to understand actions.  It is fun studying the social brain because there is an enormous amount that we don’t know – it is all just waiting to be discovered.

There is no typical day because my work involves a bit of everything.  Some days I help my students make movies to show to people in the scanner, some days I write computer programs to control the experiment or analyse data, some days I go to schools to meet children with autism, some days I write papers describing my work or give talks to other scientists, and some days I teach undergraduates.  It is always different and always challenging.

When you are studying the different ways that different people think, it is important to respect the opinions of the people who take part in research and not just tell them that something is wrong.  Our studies show what is similar and different in the brains of people with autism.  I’d use the money to visit autism groups or conferences and ask them what they think of our research and what they think we should study next.  Listening to the thoughts of the people who take part in research is crucial and can give us ideas for good experiments.