Cognitive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorders and patients with schizophrenia: the ability to organize information

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22530691
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Fukushima University
• Principal Investigator: SUMIYOSHI Chika 福島大学, 人間発達文化学類, 教授 (20262347)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SUMIYOSHI Tomiki 富山大学, 大学院・医学薬学研究部(医学), 准教授 (80286062)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUMIYOSHI Tomiki 独立行政法人国立精神, 神経医療研究センター, 上級専門職 (80286062)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 統合失調症 / 自閉性障害スペクトラム / 語流暢性課題 / 全称量化表現 / 認知表現型 / 機能的転帰

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of the study was to investigate the ability to organize information in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and in patients with schizophrenia. Specifically, we examined the understanding of quantificational expressions in ASD children, and semantic structure in patients with schizophrenia. The results suggested that 1) ASD children showed poorer performance on the tasks using quantificational expressions compared to normally developed children with the same age, and 2) semantic structures, derived from category fluency data, were less organized in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy adults. Those results suggested that the impairment in the ability to organize information was one of cognitive phenotypes common to both disorders.
Japanese versions of functional outcome measures and the category fluency corpus were also developed to increase the utility of the data obtained in the current study.

Free Research Field

臨床心理学