Hidemi Iwasaka

Event-related potentials in drug-naïve pediatric patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common mental health disorders, characterized by obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors, which may involve specific disorders in cognition and/or information processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are commonly used as physiological measures of cognitive function as they are easily measured and noninvasive. In the present study, 20 drug-naïve pediatric patients with OCD were compared with 20 healthy control participants who were age- and sex-matched to perform the ERP. Based on the guidelines for evoked potential measurement, the P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN) were obtained by auditory odd-ball tasks. We found that the amplitudes of the P300 components in the Fz, Cz, Pz, C3, and C4 regions were significantly smaller in the OCD group compared with the control group. There were no between-group differences in P300 latency, MMN amplitude, or MMN latency. Moreover, we found significant correlations between scores on the Childrens Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) and P300 amplitudes at Cz, Pz, and C3. The present study is the first to report smaller P300s and the associations between P300 abnormalities and CY-BOCS scores.

Comparison of pervasive developmental disorder and schizophrenia by the Japanese version of the National Adult Reading Test

Abstract Objective. In adults, it is sometimes difficult to discriminate between pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and schizophrenia (SCH) when positive symptoms are not outstanding. We examined whether the Japanese version of the National Adult Reading Test (JART), is a valid scale for evaluating pre-morbid intelligence quotient (IQ) in patients with SCH, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) are useful for helping to discriminate between PDD and SCH. Methods. Sixteen patients with adult PDD and 16 age-, education- and sex-matched patients with SCH participated in the present study. In addition, two groups were matched for JART and GAF scores. All subjects were scored on the JART and WAIS-R after informed consent on the aim of this study. Examiners who were blind to the diagnoses measured JART and WAIS-R. Results. Significant diagnosis-by-IQ examination interactions were found (F[1,30] = 10.049, P = 0.003). Furthermore, WAIS-R scores of the PDD group were higher than those of the SCH group (P = 0.002) considering two groups were matched for JART. Conclusions. The comparison of IQ in the PDD group and in the SCH group by JART and WAIS-R might be an easy and useful method for helping to discriminate between PDD and SCH.

Establishing the cut‐off point for the Oppositional Defiant Behavior Inventory

Abstract  The purpose of the present paper was to make a detailed examination of the cut‐off point for the Oppositional Defiant Behavior Inventory (ODBI). The subjects were 56 untreated boys (age 6–15 years), who were diagnosed to have oppositional defiant disorder and who presented between December 2001 and March 2008. Controls were 690 boys with no history of contacting hospitals and no developmental or behavioral disorders at two elementary schools and two junior high schools in a city and its suburbs. It was shown that the level of opposition in boys could be evaluated regardless of the age groups by the ODBI, because there was no significant difference in the ODBI score for the one‐way analysis of variance. Based on the sensitivity (88.2%), specificity (90.0%), positive predictive value (75.0%) and negative predictive value (95.7%), a score of 20 points was thus established as a suitable cut‐off point to distinguish the children who are eligible for ODD diagnosis from those who are not.

Event-Related Potentials Correlate with the Severity of Child and Adolescent Patients with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Background: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms can continue through adolescence and adulthood, including difficulty in staying focused, paying attention, and controlling behavior, as well as hyperactivity. While children and adolescents with ADHD have functional impairments at multiple dimensions, there are no objective biological indicators to assess the severity of ADHD. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used as a noninvasive method for evaluating sensory and cognitive processes involved in attention tasks. Previous studies have shown that P300 amplitude or latency, a main component in ERPs, is altered in patients with ADHD. However, little is known about the relationship between P300 and the severity of ADHD symptoms. Method: We sought to measure both P300 amplitude and latency in ERPs during auditory oddball tasks in 44 patients with ADHD (mean age ± SD 10.28 ± 3.43 years) and 15 age- and gender-matched normally developing children (11.40 ± 3.02 years). In ADHD patients, we also assessed symptom severity using the ADHD rating scale-IV-Japanese version. Result: In ADHD groups, P300 amplitude and latency were attenuated and prolonged compared to controls at the frontocentral, centroparietal, and parietal positions. Furthermore, levels of P300 latency at these positions are positively correlated with the inattention subscale scores measured by the ADHD rating scale-IV-Japanese version. Conclusions: The present study revealed that the degree of P300 latency might reflect the severity of ADHD symptoms with children and adolescents, suggesting that ERPs are a useful technique to evaluate the severity of ADHD symptoms.

Teaching Social Communication Skills Through Human-Agent Interaction

There are a large number of computer-based systems that aim to train and improve social skills. However, most of these do not resemble the training regimens used by human instructors. In this article, we propose a computer-based training system that follows the procedure of social skills training (SST), a well-established method to decrease human anxiety and discomfort in social interaction, and acquire social skills. We attempt to automate the process of SST by developing a dialogue system named the automated social skills trainer, which teaches social communication skills through human-agent interaction. The system includes a virtual avatar that recognizes user speech and language information and gives feedback to users. Its design is based on conventional SST performed by human participants, including defining target skills, modeling, role-play, feedback, reinforcement, and homework. We performed a series of three experiments investigating (1) the advantages of using computer-based training systems compared to human-human interaction (HHI) by subjectively evaluating nervousness, ease of talking, and ability to talk well; (2) the relationship between speech language features and human social skills; and (3) the effect of computer-based training using our proposed system. Results of our first experiment show that interaction with an avatar decreases nervousness and increases the users subjective impression of his or her ability to talk well compared to interaction with an unfamiliar person. The experimental evaluation measuring the relationship between social skill and speech and language features shows that these features have a relationship with social skills. Finally, experiments measuring the effect of performing SST with the proposed application show that participants significantly improve their skill, as assessed by separate evaluators, by using the system for 50 minutes. A user survey also shows that the users thought our system is useful and easy to use, and that interaction with the avatar felt similar to HHI.

Erratum to: Reliability and validity of Japanese versions of KIDSCREEN-27 and KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaires

1 Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, 840 Shijo-cho, Kashihara, Nara 634-8521, Japan 2 Center for Special Needs Education, Nara University of Education, Nara, Japan 3 Department of Food and Nutrition Faculty of Contemporary Human Life Science, Tezukayama University, Nara, Japan 4 Department of Education for Children with Disabilities, Kyoto University of Education, Kyoto, Japan 5 Pediatrics of Higashiosaka City General Hospital, Higashiosaka, Osaka, Japan