Relationship Between Odor Identification and Visual Distractors in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 48; no. 7; pp. 2590 - 2592
• Main Authors: Kumazaki, Hirokazu, Kikuchi, Mitsuru, Yoshimura, Yuko, Miyao, Masutomo, Okada, Ken-ichi, Mimura, Masaru, Minabe, Yoshio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.07.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Attention; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - physiopathology; Autistic children; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Comparative Analysis; Correlation; Distraction; Female; Health status indicators; Humans; Identification; Intervention; Letter to the Editor; Male; Matched Groups; Neurosciences; Odor; Olfactory discrimination; Olfactory Perception; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Physiological aspects; Psychology; Public Health; Smell; Visual Perception; Visual Stimuli; Autism spectrum disorders; Visual distractor; Identification; Olfactory; Odor
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3511-3

Understanding the nature of olfactory abnormalities is crucial for optimal interventions in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, previous studies that have investigated odor identification in children with ASD have produced inconsistent results. The ability to correctly identify an odor relies heavily on visual inputs in the general population. We tested odor identification in eight children with ASD and eight age-matched children with typical development (TD). After confirming that all children were able to identify each odor without visual input, we measured odor identification under the visual-distractor condition. Odor identification was hindered by visual distractors for all children with ASD but was not affected in all children with TD. Our results improve understanding of odor identification in ASD.