Visuomotor processes for prehension movements in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26880029
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
• Principal Investigator: Fukui Takao 国立障害者リハビリテーションセンター(研究所), 研究所 脳機能系障害研究部, 流動研究員 (80447036)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 到達把持運動 / オンライン視覚 / 自閉スペクトラム症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Movement disturbances in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been a focus of research in addition to their social communication problems (e.g., Leary & Hill, 1996). However, kinematics properties of reach-to-grasp movements in adolescents with ASD have not yet been clarified. We investigated how online vision affects grip aperture control and how motor acts (grasping and uplift) are chained in adolescents with ASD, compared to typically developing (TD) peers. We found that ASD's grip aperture patterns were quite similar to those of TD and that the coupling between grasping and uplift in ASD was impaired. Therefore, movement disturbance in ASD would not be due to a lack of use of online vision for motor control, but rather due to a deficit in chaining motor acts.

Free Research Field

認知科学