A study to develop a screening test for autism

本研究通过在简单的全局/局部任务中测量皮层血流动力学来考察自闭症患者在皮层加工方面是否与正常发育的人不同，并试图找到一个指标来筛选自闭症患者。正常发育组的任务执行速度明显快于孤独症组，任务执行精度明显高于孤独症组。在任务期间，用近红外光谱设备监测皮质血流动力学变化。两组之间的激活没有差异。然而，在任务期之后，激活模式有所不同；TD似乎被激活，而ASD则稳定下来。结果表明，两组在视觉客体感知方面具有不同的认知/皮层加工模式。

The present study examined whether autistic people are different from typically developed people in cortical processing by means of measuring cortical hemodynamics during an easy global/local task, and then tried to find an index to screen autistic people. The task performance was significantly faster and more precise in Typical developed group than in Autistic group. Cortical hemodynamic change was monitored by a Near Infrared Spectroscopy equipment during the task. The activation did not differ between the two groups. However, the activation pattern was different rather after the task periods; TD seemed activated while ASD settled down. The result infer that the two groups have different cognitive/cortical processing patterns in visual object perception.