学術国際会議派遣報告(心理学専攻)
文学部 緑川晶准教授が「国際神経心理学会2009年度中間会議」に参加、
研究発表を行いました。以下、学術国際会議派遣の報告をいたします。
【会議名】 国際神経心理学会2009年度中間会議
(INS Mid-Year Meeting 2009)
【主催機関名】 国際神経心理学会
(International Neuropsychological Society)
【開催地】 ヘルシンキ(フィンランド)
【発表日】 2009年7月30日(金)
【発表のテーマ】
「絵画に特異な技能を有した前頭側頭型認知症の認知機能は自閉症サヴァン
の認知機能に類似している」
【発表の内容】
MIDORIKAWA, A. & KAWAMURA, M.
Cognitive Functions of a Patient with Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD) having
Superior Painting Skills is similar to that of Autistic Savant Syndrome.
Objective: Some patients with fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) show superior
abilities such as painting or composing even after the onset of the disease and
these abilities have been considered as “acquired” savant syndrome.
In this report, we presented a case of FTD who developed a painting skill after
the onset of the disease and have discussed cognitive similarities between
acquired and autistic savant. Participants and Methods: The subject was a 53-year-
old, righthanded woman. At the age of 49, she noticed having difficulty recalling
the names of certain objects. Neuropsychological examination showed a marked
deficit in verbal function, namely Gogi (word meaning) aphasia. MR images
showed marked atrophy in the left temporal lobe. She developed drawing
behavior after the onset of FTD, despite not having been artists or having any
interest in drawing before the illness. In this study, we examined following three
respects which were reported as characteristics of autistic savant syndrome. 1)
Painting style. 2)Subscales of the Wechsler intelligence scales. 3)Process of
assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Results: 1) The pictures drawn by her were realistic
as opposed to abstract in character. In other words, her paintings were of a
“slavish” style, depending on vivid imagery of objects. She painted details
of the objects, such as veins on a leaf. 2) In the WAIS-R, she showed good
scores on the Block Design subscales (12 point) whereas; bad scores on the
Comprehension subscale (1 point). 3) She assembled a jigsaw puzzle quickly
and showed row error rate even when comparing with young healthy subjects.
She could also make the puzzle without any reference. Conclusions: Above
mentioned three items were known as characteristics of autistic savant, especially
gifted in painting. In the literature, it has been documented that patients with
semantic dementia or Gogi (word meaning) aphasia even within FTD patients,
show three tendencies. Therefore semantic (or word meaning) deficit might be
crucial to having a tendency to use local processing.