• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.125-131
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• 2015

The current study explores whether speaker variability in the fronted articulations of Seoul Korean affricates can be explained by cognitive differences measured by individual autistic traits. The goal was to explore Yu's (2010; 2013) proposal that individual differences in cognitive style can be an important factor in speakers' use of sound variants. The spectral peak frequencies (SPF) of affricates relative to those of fricatives, reported in Kong et al. (2014), were used to acoustically represent the relative degree of anterior place of constriction. When these individual SPFs were related to the scores of Autistic-Spectrum Quotients (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), a correlation was found for the male speakers, but not for the female speakers, such that speakers of more anterior affricate productions scored low in AQs. Discussion is made with respect to how these findings are in line with Yu's proposal.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 2019

The present study investigated the relationships between autistic trait and socio-moral judgments. We used Autism Spectrum Quotient, a moral judgment task in which participants needed to consider both the intention and outcomes of a person's actions, a moral judgment task in which participants were asked to evaluate a person's utilitarian choices in moral dilemmas, and Moral Foundations Questionnaire. Autistic traits were negatively correlated with blame for failed attempts to harm others, suggesting that higher autistic traits were associated with difficulty in considering intentions in moral judgments. Also, higher autistic traits were associated with higher endorsement of utilitarian option on personal moral dilemmas, and lower endorsement for no-harm principle of moral foundations. These correlations were confirmed as group differences between high autistic-trait group (AQ >= 26) and a low autistic-trait group (AQ < 26). Our findings suggest that individuals with high autistic trait may have difficulty in considering others' intentions and show lower sensitivity to no-harm principle in moral judgment tasks.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.53-59
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• 2017

The present study examined if individual listeners' perceptual variations were associated with their cognitive characteristics indexed by the Autistic Spectrum Quotient (AQ). This study first investigated the perception of the lexical pitch accent contrast in the Kyungsang Korean currently undergoing a sound change, and then tested if listeners' perceptual variations were correlated with their AQ scores. Eighteen Kyungsang listeners in their 20s participated in the perception experiment where they identified two contrastive accent words for auditory stimuli systematically varying F0 scaling and timing properties; the participants then completed the AQ questionnaire. In the results, the acoustic parameters reporting reduced phonetic differences across accent contrasts for younger Kyungsang generation played a reliable role in perceiving the HH word from HL, suggesting the discrepancy between the perception and the production in the context of sound change. This study also observed that individuals' perceptual variations were negatively correlated with their AQ sub scores. The present findings suggested that the sound change might appear differently between production and perception with a different time course, and deviant percepts could be explained by individuals' cognitive measure.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.245-256
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• 2011

This study consists of two sections to figure out the relationship between autistic features and empathizing-systemizing traits. For the first section, the research involved 355 university students to measure their EQ, SQ-R and AQ. As a result, it is found that AQ was negatively correlated to EQ, and D score(relative difference between EQ and SQ-R of the individuals), but it was not significantly related to SQ-R. It means that the subject has high AQ if he has relatively lower EQ than SQ-R. For the second section, the subjects were divided into two groups based on their AQ score; the subjects who had a tendency of autism and the subjects who did not. The test measured how these two groups were different in terms of facial expressions' recognition according to the tendency of autism, facial expression presenting areas(whole face, eyes-alone, mouth-alone) and different types of emotions(basic and complex emotions). As a result, the subjects who had a tendency of autism were lower at judging facial expressions than the subjects who did not. Also, the results showed that the subjects judged better on the condition of basic emotions more than complex emotions, the whole face more than eyes-alone and mouth-alone. Especially, for the eyes-alone condition, the subjects who had a tendency of autism were lower at judging facial expressions than the subjects who did not. This study suggests that empathizing traits and facial expressions' recognition are related to the tendency of autism.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

The vowel /o/ in Seoul Korean has been undergoing a sound change by altering the acoustic weighting of F2 and F1. Studies documented that this on-going change redefined the nature of a /o/-/u/ contrast as F2 differences rather than as F1 differences. The current study examined two cognitive factors namely executive function capacity (EF) and autistic traits, in terms of their roles in explaining who in speech community would adapt new acoustic forms of the target vowels, and who would retain the old forms. The participants, 55 college students speaking Seoul Korean, produced /o/ and /u/ vowels in isolated words; and completed three EF tasks (Digit N-Back, Stroop, and Trail-Making Task), and an Autism screening questionnaire. The relationships between speakers' cognitive task scores and their utilizations of F1 and F2 were analyzed using a series of correlation tests. Results yielded a meaningful relationship in participants' EF scores interacting with gender. Among the females, speakers with higher EF scores were better at retaining F1, which is a less informative cue for females since they utilized F2 more than they did F1 in realizing /o/ and /u/. In contrast, better EF control among male speakers was associated with more use of the new cue (F2) where males still utilized F1 as much as F2 in the production of /o/ and /u/ vowels. Taken together, individual differences in acoustic realization can be explained by individuals' cognitive abilities, and their progress in the sound change further predicts that cognitive ability influences the utilization of acoustic information which is non-primary to the speaker.

• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.238-243
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• 2022

Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a behavioral syndrome characterized by persistent deficits in social interaction, and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. The gene encoding Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) is one of a few exceptional genes of established causal effect in ASD. Although genetically engineered mice studies may shed light on how MeCP2 loss affects synaptic activity patterns across the whole brain, such studies are not considered practical in ASD patients due to the overall level of impairment, and are technically challenging in mice. For the first time, we show that hippocampal MeCP2 knockdown produces behavioral abnormalities associated with autism-like traits in rats, providing a new strategy to investigate the efficacy of therapeutics in ASD. Ketamine, an N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) blocker, has been proposed as a possible treatment for autism. Using the MeCP2 knockdown rats in conjunction with a rat model of valproic acid (VPA)-induced ASD, we examined gene expression and ASD behaviors upon ketamine treatment. We report that the core symptoms of autism in MeCP2 knockdown rats with social impairment recovered dramatically following a single treatment with ketamine.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2009

Adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL) deficiency is a disease of purine metabolism which affects patients both biochemicall and behaviorally. An obstacle of this purine nucleotide cycle(PNC) can be caused brain functional disorder and growth disorder. So ADSL deficiency, which is associated with sever mental retardation, autistic features and energy metabolism. This study was performed to identify SNP on ADSL gene in chicken. The nucleotides were observed as T to C ($7724^{th}$ nucleotide), C to T ($7732^{nd}$ nucleotide), G to T ($10108^{th}$ nucleotide), A to T ($10356^{th}$ nucleotide), G to A($10375^{th}$ nucleotide), A to C ($10402^{nd}$ nucleotide), A to T ($12716^{th}$ nucleotide), T to A ($12717^{th}$ nucleotide), C to T ($15491^{st}$ nucleotide), C to T ($15542^{nd}$ nucleotide) and C to T ($15550^{th}$ nucleotide). The nucleotide substitutions at $15542^{nd}$ and $15550^{th}$ (GeneBank accession no. AY665559) were found as missense mutation (alanine$\rightarrow$valine, proline$\rightarrow$serine, respectively). This study will be useful for farther researches for identifying association between these SNPs and energy metabolism in chicken. The C15550T SNP showed three genotypes, CC, CT, TT by digestion with the genotype TT had significantly faster the first lay day (150.0) than CT (162.0, P<0.05) and genotype TT (150.0, P<0.05) had significantly higher the egg production rate than CT (172.4, P<0.05). According to result of this study, a C15550T was found to have a significantly effect first lay day and mean egg production. It will be possible to use SNP marker on selecting chicken to improve important economic traits, which is the first lay day and mean egg production.