Abstract
Recent technical advance can allow us to measure cortical activations of children non-invasively in daily life situation. Reading to children, Yomikikase is now thought to be a powerful method for parents to communicate with their children even in infancy. In the field of developmental psychology, there are studies for effects of Yomikikase such as developing abilities to listen and understand, growing an ability to image from language, facilitating communication between book reader and its listener etc. In this study, we measured cortical blood flow (CBF) of both mother and child during Yomikikase by fNIRS, and investigated the effects of Yomikikase from neural aspects. Eight mothers and of their fourteen children were participated. Written informed consents were obtained. We measured the frontal CBF by the fNIRS (OMM-3000, Shimadu). When we compared the frontal CBF between Yomikikase and simple book reading, in 6 mothers, the frontal CBFs were greater during Yomikikase. However, in 6 children, the frontal CBFs were decreased during Yomikikase. We further tested several control tasks and will discuss the meaning of the decrease in frontal CBF during Yomikikae in children. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S169]
