Intact mirror mechanisms for automatic facial emotions in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

It has been suggested that an early deficit in the human mirror neuron system (MNS) is an important feature of autism. Recent findings related to simple hand and finger movements do not support a general dysfunction of the MNS in autism. Studies investigating facial actions (e.g., emotional expressions) have been more consistent, however, mostly relied on passive observation tasks. We used a new variant of a compatibility task for the assessment of automatic facial mimicry responses that allowed for simultaneous control of attention to facial stimuli. We used facial electromyography in 18 children and adolescents with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 18 typically developing controls (TDCs). We observed a robust compatibility effect in ASD, that is, the execution of a facial expression was facilitated if a congruent facial expression was observed. Time course analysis of RT distributions and comparison to a classic compatibility task (symbolic Simon task) revealed that the facial compatibility effect appeared early and increased with time, suggesting fast and sustained activation of motor codes during observation of facial expressions. We observed a negative correlation of the compatibility effect with age across participants and in ASD, and a positive correlation between self-rated empathy and congruency for smiling faces in TDC but not in ASD. This pattern of results suggests that basic motor mimicry is intact in ASD, but is not associated with complex social cognitive abilities such as emotion understanding and empathy. Autism Res 2017, 10: 298-310. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

What happened to mirror neurons?

“…Finally, behavioural measures of imitation have also provided little evidence for a broken mirror account of autism. Although one study reported some differences in instructed imitation (Cossu et al, 2012), a task with many demands unrelated to mirror neurons, the majority of recent studies have found either no difference in imitation between autistic and neurotypical participants, or greater imitation in people with autism (Sowden et al, 2016;Schunke et al, 2016;Schulte-Ruther et al, 2017;Gordon et al, 2020). Overall, therefore, the last ten years of research have produced no compelling evidence for the claim that autism is associated with mirror neuron dysfunction.…”

Should we change targets and methods of early intervention in autism, in favor of a strengths-based education?

“…Indeed, there is a major discrepancy between the oddity of autistic social behaviors, clinically measurable through standardized diagnostic instruments, the brain correlates of social competence in autistic individuals [50], and the actual ability of these individuals to perform tasks by assessing key components of human social bonding. Such discrepancies have been reported, for example, for mimetic desire [20], social orientation [45], social facilitation [30], and the automatic facial mimicry response [61]. These negative findings suggest that a clear distinction should be made between an abstract function of socialization, common to all members of the human species, and its visible manifestations, which may vary between subgroups of humans.…”

Immune dysfunction and neuroinflammation in autism spectrum disorder

“…It is tempting to speculate that astrocyte function may be the bottleneck of a possible suggestive answer to this question (Bianco-Suarez et al 2016). The neurobiological pattern of ASD has recently introduced the role of mirror neurons (Schulte-Rüther et al 2016, Linkovski et al 2016, Saffin and Tohid 2016. Mirror neurons exert direct action that impact the occipital cortex, cingulate cortex, insula and dorsal prefrontal cortex in ASD (Yang and Hoffmann 2015).…”