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Impressions of Humanness for Android Robot may Represent an Endophenotype for Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Identification of meaningful endophenotypes may be critical to unraveling the etiology and pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated whether impressions of “humanness” for android robot might represent a candidate characteristic of an ASD endophenotype. We used a female type of android robot with an appearance similar to that of a real person. Significant differences in overall impressions of ‘humanness’ for android robot were found between adolescents with ASD and typical development (TD) controls, as well as parents of children with ASD and parents of TD controls. Our current work does suggest robotic systems could potentially play an intelligent role in dissecting ASD heterogeneity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the parents and children to the AUTOSLab at Vanderbilt University as well as the clinical research staff of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Specifically, the contributions of Nicole Bardett were instrumental to the project success.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, 13-1, Takaramachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8640, Japan

    Hirokazu Kumazaki, Yoshio Minabe & Mitsuru Kikuchi

  2. Treatment and Research Institute of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Hirokazu Kumazaki & Amy Swanson

  3. Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Special Education Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Zachary Warren

  4. Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

    Yuichiro Yoshikawa & Hiroshi Ishiguro

  5. JST ERATO ISHIGURO Symbiotic Human-Robot Interaction, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

    Yuichiro Yoshikawa & Hiroshi Ishiguro

  6. Service Robotics Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Yoshio Matsumoto

  7. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Nilanjan Sarkar

Authors
  1. Hirokazu Kumazaki
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  2. Zachary Warren
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  3. Amy Swanson
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  4. Yuichiro Yoshikawa
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  5. Yoshio Matsumoto
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  6. Hiroshi Ishiguro
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  7. Nilanjan Sarkar
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  8. Yoshio Minabe
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  9. Mitsuru Kikuchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hirokazu Kumazaki.

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We have no financial relationships to disclose.

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All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All procedures received institutional human subject’s approval with corresponding informed consent/assent procedures completed for all participants.

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Kumazaki, H., Warren, Z., Swanson, A. et al. Impressions of Humanness for Android Robot may Represent an Endophenotype for Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 632–634 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3365-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3365-0

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