2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of new method of early detection of Autism spectrum disorder

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22653088
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Clinical psychology
Research Institution	Showa Women's University
Principal Investigator	NAKAMURA Noriko 昭和女子大学, 人間社会学部, 専任講師 (90425702)
Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha)	NAKAMURA Katsuki 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 教授 (70243110)
Research Collaborator	SASAKI Takeo , 日本公文教育研究会
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2012
Keywords	心理検査 / 視線計測 / 自閉性障害
Research Abstract	We attempted to develop a new method of early detection of pervasive developmental disorder based on visual scanning behavior. We examined visual scanning patterns of both typical developing (TD) children and those with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) during their mother read a picture book aloud. All the TD children fixated far more extensively on the faces than other areas. However, more than half of the PDD children paid less attention to the faces. Rather they paid attention to wider regions including feet and bodies. Such an unbiased scanning pattern is probably one of the behavioral features of children with autistic disorder . Analyzing visual scanning patterns on the picture book may help us to detect Autism spectrum disorder in early childhood.