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Research Topics
The function of lateral occipito-temporal cortex across multiple cognition
The function of lateral occipito-temporal cortex across multiple cognition
The lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) contains body-parts sensitive region and contributes to self recognition and gestural interaction. The autistic people have difficulties in gestural interaction, as well as body or action recognition. We examined function of brain network centered on the LOTC (with Prof. Kosaka, Dr. Naruse, Prof. Kitada, Dr. Kochiyama, and Prof. Miyahara).
(1) Recognizing being imitated
(1) Recognizing being imitated
Reciprocal imitation is important interaction tool for preverbal children. Contingency detection between self and other's action is relevant for understanding being imitated by another person. Behavioral studies have found that the autistic individual are less sensitive to being imitated. We found that the activation in the LOTC associated with contingency detection was reduced in adults with ASD (Okamoto et al. 2014). We further found that the connectivity of the IFG and LOTC during reciprocal imitation changes through development in typically developing individuals (Okamoto et al. 2020).
(2) First-person and third-person perspective
(2) First-person and third-person perspective
Children with ASD frequently show reversal error of imitation. The difficulty in perspective taking of body may associated with its imitation error. We found that perspective-dependent activation in the LOTC and mPFC was altered in autistic adults where they observed hand from first- and third-person perspective. We further found that accuracy of gestural imitation was correlated with perspective-dependent activation in the inferior parietal lobule and cerebellum (Okamoto et al. 2018).
(3) Visual body recognition
(3) Visual body recognition
Individual with ASD have difficulies in recognizing bodies and faces, which are more pronounced in children than adults. We found that the activation in the EBA and FFA was different between ASD and typically developing children. In contrast, ASD and typically developing adults showed quite similar activation in the EBA and FFA. The findings suggest that delayed maturation of the EBA and FFA might catch up before adulthood (Okamoto et al. 2017). We further found that body part representation in the LOTC evaluated by MVPA was associated with sensation avoiding score of sensory profile in typically developing children (Okamoto et al. 2020).
Gait characteristics of autistic and ADHD individuals
Gait characteristics of autistic and ADHD individuals
Many individuals with ASD and ADHD have movement difficulties, and both of them shows different gait pattern to typically developing individuals. We are trying to find the ASD and ADHD specific characteristic gait pattern from motion analysis systems and machine learning (with Prof. Mitsugami, Prof. Kosaka, Dr. Naruse and Dr. Ide).
Implicit association of communicative behavior and preference
Implicit association of communicative behavior and preference
Almost questionnaires evaluating autistic trait ask preference of communicative behaviors explicitly. However, some people may answer that they like to communicate according to social demands (i.e. people with good social skills are in demand) rather than their actual preference. We are trying to develop test evaluating implicit association between communicative behavior and their preference (with Prof. Kosaka).
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