Are emotion impairments unique to, universal, or specific in autism spectrum disorder? A comprehensive review

Nuske, Heather J.; Vivanti, Giacomo; Dissanayake, Cheryl

doi:10.1080/02699931.2012.762900

Cited by 162 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 147 publications

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“…That no significant group differences were found for non-negative emotions leads to conclude that the valence (and intensity) of an emotion affects recognition performance by individuals with ASD. This result is consistent with the literature, as valence and intensity are reported in a literature review as core factors influencing recognition performance specifically in ASD (Nuske et al, 2013). The results from the current study are in line with reports that the emotion recognition deficits in ASD are particularly evident for negative basic emotions (Ashwin et al, 2006;Gaigg, 2012;Wallace et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Facial expressions of emotion are one form of non-verbal communication, and the ability to infer emotional states from facial expressions has been a major research interest in ASD. Literature reviews and meta-analyses have reported deficits in facial emotion recognition in ASD compared to controls (see Gaigg, 2012;Harms, Martin, & Wallace, 2010;Lozier, Vanmeter, & Marsh, 2014;Nuske, Vivanti, & Dissanayake, 2013;Uljarevic & Hamilton, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diminished sensitivity and specificity at recognising facial emotional expressions of varying intensity underlie emotion-specific recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders

Wingenbach

Ashwin

Brosnan

2017

Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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A B S T R A C TBackground: A plethora of research on facial emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exists and reported deficits in ASD compared to controls, particularly for negative basic emotions. However, these studies have largely used static high intensity stimuli. The current study investigated facial emotion recognition across three levels of expression intensity from videos, looking at accuracy rates to investigate impairments in facial emotion recognition and error patterns ('confusions') to explore potential underlying factors. Method: Twelve individuals with ASD (9 M/3F; M(age) = 17.3) and 12 matched controls (9 M/3F; M(age) = 16.9) completed a facial emotion recognition task including 9 emotion categories (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, contempt, embarrassment, pride) and neutral, each expressed by 12 encoders at low, intermediate, and high intensity. Results: A facial emotion recognition deficit was found overall for the ASD group compared to controls, as well as deficits in recognising individual negative emotions at varying expression intensities. Compared to controls, the ASD group showed significantly more, albeit typical, confusions between emotion categories (at high intensity), and significantly more confusions of emotions as 'neutral' (at low intensity). Conclusions: The facial emotion recognition deficits identified in ASD, particularly for negative emotions, are in line with previous studies using other types of stimuli. Error analysis showed that individuals with ASD had difficulties detecting emotional information in the face (sensitivity) at low intensity, and correctly identifying emotional information (specificity) at high intensity. These results suggest different underlying mechanisms for the facial emotion recognition deficits at low vs high expression intensity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diminished sensitivity and specificity at recognising facial emotional expressions of varying intensity underlie emotion-specific recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders

Wingenbach

Ashwin

Brosnan

2017

Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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“…The existence and extent of emotional impairments in ASD has become a debated topic. Recent reviews indicate that individuals with ASD indeed have difficulty in processing emotional stimuli, but it is still debated whether those difficulties are secondary to other cognitive domains or constitute an independent problem (Nuske et al 2013;Gaigg 2012). Our results support the theoretical position that emotional impairments extend beyond the visual domain to emotional language and are a relatively independent component of ASD.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…In contrast, other scholars argued that emotional impairments are more widespread and extend beyond the social domain (e.g., Gaigg 2012). Yet other authors argue that emotional impairments are not universal in ASD, which means that there is a lot of heterogeneity in the results across different groups of ASD participants and across different tasks, and that the impairments are not specific to emotion (Nuske et al 2013). This implies that many of the findings can be accounted for in terms of differences in attention/motivation/baseline physiological activity between ASD and comparison groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

Lartseva

Dijkstra

Kan

et al. 2014

J Autism Dev Disord

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This study investigated processing of emotion words in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using reaction times and event-related potentials (ERP). Adults with (n = 21) and without (n = 20) ASD performed a lexical decision task on emotion and neutral words while their brain activity was recorded. Both groups showed faster responses to emotion words compared to neutral, suggesting intact early processing of emotion in ASD. In the ERPs, the control group showed a typical late positive component (LPC) at 400-600 ms for emotion words compared to neutral, while the ASD group showed no LPC. The between-group difference in LPC amplitude was significant, suggesting that emotion words were processed differently by individuals with ASD, although their behavioral performance was similar to that of typical individuals.

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“…As compare to TD's, ASD's are insufficient for facial emotions learning. Most of the literature had reported ASD's with deficit in facial emotion recognition as compared to TD's [2,[9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ASD Faces are Less Explainable

Khullar¹,

Singh²,

Bala³

2017

Autism Open Access

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The aim of our study is to investigate the relation between the facial emotions of Autistic during their face processing motor activities by using a computerized approach. This experiment is conducted to establish the difference in the total response time (in seconds) for reflected face emotional expressions during the displaying videos as stimuli in the case of TD's and ASD's. Python 2.7 has been utilized for programming and implementing the computerized facial emotions detection system and for video playing. expressions and body movements. In results TD and Down syndrome children performed better than Autistic group, however severe Autistic group got better results of learning than the milder Autistic group.Interactive, active, realistic avatar based training software, namely "FaceSay" was used by Hopkins, 2011 for improving social, behavioral skills in Autistics. FaceSay had contained realistic avatars (animated photos of real persons) based three different games, i.e., "Amazing Gazing" for eye gaze, "Band Aid Click" for facial recognition, "Follow the Leader". It discriminated facial expressions while photographs, drawings, emotional, facial and non-facial expressions used as stimuli. After FaceSay training, the various tests (Emotion Recognition test, the Benton Facial Recognition test, and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Scale tests) were validated the significant improvement in their behavioral skills of Autistics [23,24]. FaceSay was also used by Rice et al. [24] for improving the ASDs with eye-gaze, metalizing, attention, affect reorganization and face reorganization skills. Emotional skills, social environment reorganization and mental ability were noted as enhanced in ASD's after training conducted on computer based simulated environment.Emotionally capable virtual reality avatars [25] were used where ASD's had reflected more distributed attention to face area with long respond time as compared to TD's. Kandalaft et al. [26] investigated the feasibility of Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training intervention for social skills, cognition and functioning enhancement of autistics. A three dimensional virtual reality software Second Life version 2.1, Microsoft Windows XP, Audio voice manipulation software and 24 inch monitor were used for displaying user as a changeable virtual entity or Avatars with arm, body and mouth movements only. Pre and post sessions were conducted for virtual reality-social cognitive training program was attended Autistics were found with improved social facial and interaction skills. The potential impact of using 3D virtual reality, technological integration for social interaction and communication in Autistic children was investigated by Ke et al. [27]. This virtual reality program was consisted with body gesture and facial expression recognition during basic interactions in school or parties. After training on realistic virtual space, the Autistics had performed better in leading interaction, initiating interaction, maintaining interaction, responses and gesture re...

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Are emotion impairments unique to, universal, or specific in autism spectrum disorder? A comprehensive review

Cited by 162 publications

References 147 publications

Diminished sensitivity and specificity at recognising facial emotional expressions of varying intensity underlie emotion-specific recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders

Diminished sensitivity and specificity at recognising facial emotional expressions of varying intensity underlie emotion-specific recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders

Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

ASD Faces are Less Explainable

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