[Smell recognition in pervasive developmental disorders].
To evaluate smell recognition in pervasive developmental disorders (PDD).



Twenty-one PDD (experimental group) and 21 matched controls (control group) male adolescents were submitted to a standardized, 12-stimuli, smell battery in three moments: with no identification suggestion; associated to four linguistic alternatives for each stimulus, and submitted again, 25 days after, with no linguistic alternatives. Data was analyzed by t test and variance analysis (p=0,05).



The experimental group scored worse than control group. Both groups scored better after stimuli and, after 25 days, scores lowered, but stayed higher than initially, without any stimuli (p<0,001). The gap was higher after 25 days, when the experimental group showed poorer smell memory from initial presentation (p<0,001).



The experimental group showed lower recognition scores, unrelated to clues previously offered, which suggests a difficulty in phenomena and semantic meaning association. Even after matching odors nomination, the gap of recognition scores remains between groups, not only in a deficitary pattern, but also qualitatively disturbed.
Assumpção
Francisco B
FB
Departamento de Psicologia, Clínica do Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo.
Adamo
Samanta
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*