Forum for Science, Industry and Business
Sponsored by:     Siemens  n-tv 
Search our Site:

Topic (optional):

 

Home Reports Health and Medicine Content

New research discovers children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are not susceptible to contagious yawning

next article
20.08.2007

New research by Birkbeck researcher Dr Atsushi Senju, in the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development has shown - for the first time - that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are not susceptible to contagious yawning.

 

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability that severely affects social interaction and communication including empathy. Contagious yawning is when yawning is triggered by perceiving others’ yawns – and is thought to share similar cognitive and neural mechanisms as empathy.


‘This is the first report that a neuropsychological or psychiatric condition can selectively impair contagious yawning, sparing spontaneous yawning,’ said Dr Senju. ‘Our study confirms the prediction of ‘empathy theory’, by demonstrating that individuals with autism, who show atypical developments in empathy, also show selective impairment in contagious yawning.’

Dr Senju, and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, showed videos of people yawning or making mouth movements to 24 children with autism spectrum disorder and to 25 normally developing children. In the tests both groups of children yawned about the same amount while watching the video of general mouth movements. Whereas the normally developing children yawned more in front of the video showing people yawning, whilst the autistic group did not increase their yawning frequency.

Becci Cussens | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.bbk.ac.uk

next article

More articles from Health and Medicine:

nachricht New discovery about the formation of new brain cells
23.11.2009 | University of Gothenburg

nachricht Women Can Quit Smoking and Control Weight Gain
23.11.2009 | Northwestern University

All articles from Health and Medicine >>>

B2B Search

Product / Service
Company / Organisation

Latest News

UCSB physicists move 1 step closer to quantum computing

23.11.2009 | Physics and Astronomy

Fat around the middle increases the risk of dementia

23.11.2009 | Studies and Analyses

New discovery about the formation of new brain cells

23.11.2009 | Health and Medicine

VideoLinks

Event News

Multidisciplinary meeting on Urological Cancers aims to benefit cancer patients

20.11.2009 | Event News

'Golden Age' for clinical psychology in Northern Ireland

20.11.2009 | Event News

New Perspectives in Marine Anti-Fouling Research

11.11.2009 | Event News