Senju Atsushi, Maeda Makiko, Kikuchi Yukiko, Hasegawa Toshikazu, Tojo Yoshikuni, Osanai Hiroo
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
Biol Lett. 2007 Dec 22;3(6):706-8. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0337.
This study is the first to report the disturbance of contagious yawning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty-four children with ASD as well as 25 age-matched typically developing (TD) children observed video clips of either yawning or control mouth movements. Yawning video clips elicited more yawns in TD children than in children with ASD, but the frequency of yawns did not differ between groups when they observed control video clips. Moreover, TD children yawned more during or after the yawn video clips than the control video clips, but the type of video clips did not affect the amount of yawning in children with ASD. Current results suggest that contagious yawning is impaired in ASD, which may relate to their impairment in empathy. It supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy.
本研究首次报告了自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体中传染性打哈欠的紊乱情况。24名患有ASD的儿童以及25名年龄匹配的发育正常（TD）儿童观看了打哈欠或对照口部动作的视频片段。打哈欠的视频片段在TD儿童中引发的哈欠比ASD儿童更多，但当他们观看对照视频片段时，两组之间的哈欠频率没有差异。此外，TD儿童在观看打哈欠视频片段期间或之后比观看对照视频片段时打哈欠更多，但视频片段的类型并未影响ASD儿童的打哈欠次数。目前的结果表明，ASD患者的传染性打哈欠受损，这可能与其共情能力受损有关。这支持了传染性打哈欠基于共情能力的说法。
