Eletrofisiologia do processamento semântico e emocional de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo em tarefas com interação materna

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Valasek, Claudia Aparecida
• Orientador(a): Boggio, Paulo Sérgio
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
• Palavras-chave em Português: autismo; transtorno do espectro do autismo; EEG (Eletroencefalografia); potencial evocado; expressão facial; processamento semântico; linguagem; prosódia; interação materna
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::EDUCACAO; CNPQ::CIENCIAS DA SAUDE
• Link de acesso: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/24555

Patients with autism spectrum disorder display severe deficits in the development and processing of language, as well as abnormalities when processing and recognizing emotions. Furthermore, impairments in these processes seem to interfere with the social functioning of these patients. Nevertheless, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of prosodic, facial expression and semantic processing of objects in patients with autism is still poorly understood, especially when considering the age range from 3 to 6 years old. Moreover, the existing studies on these processes using high-temporal resolution methods, such as electroencephalography, are still scarce. Therefore, the studies presented in this dissertation aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates underlying tasks of semantic processing of objects, facial and prosodic emotional expression with maternal and unknown person interaction. Thus, three experiments using the event-related potentials method were developed in virtue of its exceptional temporal resolution. Results different from the literature were found, since the presence of electrophysiological markers underlying the processing of semantic information (N400) and basic sensory components (P1, N170, N100 e P200) were observed in the group of autism and control group. Moreover, the mother’s voice elicited increased amplitude in some electrophysiological components, mainly in the group of autism. These results demonstrate the important maternal influence in the processing of semantic information and, hence, in the cognitive and social development of the child, seeming the ability of joint attention preserved in children with autism in relation to the maternal interaction.