TITLE:
Evaluation of Expression Recognition Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
AUTHORS:
Kaoru Furukawa, Kenji Mori, Keiko Mori, Saori Nakano, Kumi Takahashi, Hiroko Hashimoto, Tetsuya Tanioka
KEYWORDS:
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, Autism-Spectrum Quotient, Facial Expression Recognition, Prefrontal Cortex
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.8 No.1,
December
20,
2017
ABSTRACT: One of the characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is social disorder. The specificity of facial and expression recognition for people with ASD is gathering attention as a factor of this social disorder. The study examined the hemodynamic activities in the prefrontal cortex using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) when a person with ASD performed an expression recognition task. The subjects were twenty males (18 - 22 years old) with ASD and without intellectual disabilities. Forty-five healthy males matched for age and sex were included as a control group. In both groups, the degree of autistic tendencies was evaluated using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Using eight standard emotional expressions of Japanese people, two expression recognition tasks were set. An NIRS was used to measure the prefrontal cortex blood mobilization during the expression-processing process. The AQ was significantly higher in the ASD group, while the rate of overall correct expression response was significantly lower (p ρ = −0.40 p