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Minimalistic toy robot to analyze a scenery of speaker–listener condition in autism

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Abstract

Atypical neural architecture causes impairment in communication capabilities and reduces the ability of representing the referential statements of other people in children with autism. During a scenery of “speaker–listener” communication, we have analyzed verbal and emotional expressions in neurotypical children (n = 20) and in children with autism (n = 20). The speaker was always a child, and the listener was a human or a minimalistic robot which reacts to speech expression by nodding only. Although both groups performed the task, everything happens as if the robot could allow children with autism to elaborate a multivariate equation encoding and conceptualizing within his/her brain, and externalizing into unconscious emotion (heart rate) and conscious verbal speech (words). Such a behavior would indicate that minimalistic artificial environments such as toy robots could be considered as the root of neuronal organization and reorganization with the potential to improve brain activity.

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Notes

  1. Heart rate is measured in beat per minute (bpm) using a frequency counter ring (electronic device) placed on the index finger of each child. The physiological heart rate limits correspond to 95 bpm (±30) at the age of 6–7 years.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the participants and their parents, the Major, the Pedagogical Inspector, the Educational Advisor, the Director and the team of principal elementary school of the first district of Paris, and the National Department of Education and Research. The study has been supported by the Franco-Japanese Foundation of Paris.

Author contributions

IG developed the method. IG and VL performed the experiment. IG performed the data analysis and prepared the manuscript. TW is the creator of the InterActor robot. All the authors discussed the results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Neuroscience, Pierre and Marie Curie University, 75013, Paris, France

    Irini Giannopulu

  2. Centre of Medical Psychiatry, 75017, Paris, France

    Valérie Montreynaud

  3. Department of Systems Engineering, Prefectural Okayama University, Okayama, 719-1197, Japan

    Tomio Watanabe

Authors
  1. Irini Giannopulu
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  2. Valérie Montreynaud
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  3. Tomio Watanabe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irini Giannopulu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict.

Additional information

Handling Editor: Katsumi Watanabe, University of Tokyo.

Reviewers: Hideyuki Takahashi, Osaka University, Suita; Kerstin Haring, University of Tokyo.

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Giannopulu, I., Montreynaud, V. & Watanabe, T. Minimalistic toy robot to analyze a scenery of speaker–listener condition in autism. Cogn Process 17, 195–203 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0752-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0752-y

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