Neural Processing of Facial Identity and Emotion in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Fox, Sharon; Wagner, Jennifer B.; Shrock, Christine; Tager–Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A.

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00089

Cited by 43 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although currently ASD can be reliably clinically diagnosed only beyond the second year of life, researchers are increasingly turning to studying infant siblings of individuals clinically diagnosed with ASD, as this population is at high risk for autism, showing more than a 15-fold increase in the likelihood of a positive clinical outcome (e.g., Ozonoff et al 2011). In addition to collecting behavioral measures that might correlate with later development of autism, a few studies have begun using fNIRS to investigate cortical differences between at-risk infants and low-risk or typically developing infants in the first year of life (Lloyd-Fox et al 2013, Fox et al 2013, Keehn et al 2013; see also Redcay & Courchesne 2008, for a study of neural engagement during speech processing in 2–3-year-olds with autism). Keehn et al (2013) raises the intriguing prospect that focal activation in key regions of the brain are less relevant to mediating the symptoms of ASD than imbalances in the maturation of functional connectivity among the network of regions subserving social cognition (see Section 4.7).…”

Section: Domain-specific Findings About Infant Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hemodynamic Correlates of Cognition in Human Infants

Aslin

Shukla

Emberson

2015

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past 20 years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has relied heavily on hemodynamic measures of blood oxygenation in local regions of the brain to make inferences about underlying cognitive processes. These same functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) techniques have recently been adapted for use with human infants. We review the advantages and disadvantages of these two neuroimaging methods for studies of infant cognition, with a particular emphasis on their technical limitations and the linking hypotheses that are used to draw conclusions from correlational data. In addition to summarizing key findings in several domains of infant cognition, we highlight the prospects of improving the quality of fNIRS data from infants to address in a more sophisticated way how cognitive development is mediated by changes in underlying neural mechanisms.

show abstract

Section: Domain-specific Findings About Infant Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hemodynamic Correlates of Cognition in Human Infants

Aslin

Shukla

Emberson

2015

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Adopting a similar approach, Fox et al (2013) presented 7-month-old high and low-risk infants with short movie clips of their mother or a stranger smiling or posing a neutral expression. This design permitted the investigators to disentangle differential responses to face type (familiar, novel), emotion (happy, neutral) and group (high vs. low risk).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of near-infrared spectroscopy in the study of typical and atypical development

Vanderwert

Nelson

2014

NeuroImage

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has grown exponentially over the past decade, particularly among investigators interested in early brain development. The use of this neuroimaging technique has begun to shed light on the development of a variety of sensory, perceptual, linguistic, and social-cognitive functions. Rather than cast a wide net, in this paper we first discuss typical development, focusing on joint attention, face processing, language, and sensorimotor development. We then turn our attention to infants and children whose development has been compromised or who are at risk for atypical development. We conclude our review by critiquing some of the methodological issues that have plagued the extant literature as well as offer suggestions for future research.

show abstract

“…However, a recent study by Fox and colleagues [23] on infants with a high- and low-risk for ASD (that is, children who did, and did not have an older sibling with ASD, respectively), found that high-risk infants did not show differentiated brain responses to happy expressions of familiar vs. unfamiliar people, as did the low-risk infants. Thus, more research is needed to determine whether individuals with ASD react to the emotions of familiar people in a normative way, and whether this is related to their everyday empathic functioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reactivity to fearful expressions of familiar and unfamiliar people in children with autism: an eye-tracking pupillometry study

Nuske

Vivanti

Dissanayake

2014

J Neurodevelop Disord

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundIndividuals with autism are often reported to have difficulty with emotion processing. However, clinical and experimental data show that they are sensitive to familiarity; for example, they show normative attachment to familiar people, and have normative brain activity in response to familiar faces. To date, no study has measured their reactivity to the emotions of familiar vs. unfamiliar people. Thus, our aim was to determine whether individuals with autism would show normative reactivity to emotion in familiar people.MethodsParticipants were 21 children with autism and 21 children with typical development, aged two to five years, matched on age and gender. The children observed videos of familiar people (their child-care teachers) and unfamiliar people expressing fear, whilst their visual attention and pupillary reactions were recorded (the latter as an index of emotional reactivity), using eye tracking technology.ResultsThe children with autism showed normative pupillary reactions (peak magnitude) to fear expressed by familiar people, but a reduced response to fear expressed by unfamiliar people. However, across familiarity conditions, the children with autism had longer latency peak responses than the typically developing children. This pattern of findings was independent of cognitive factors or visual attention as visual attention by group was not related to familiarity condition. The children with autism had reduced visual attention to neutral faces; however, on fearful faces there were no group differences. Abnormalities in pupillary reactivity in the autism group were related to less prosocial behaviour and more severe play and communication deficits.ConclusionsChildren with autism were less atypical in their responses to fearful expressions of people they know, arguing against a pervasive emotional impairment in autism, but rather one that may be mediated by familiarity.

show abstract

Neural Processing of Facial Identity and Emotion in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cited by 43 publications

References 50 publications

Hemodynamic Correlates of Cognition in Human Infants

Hemodynamic Correlates of Cognition in Human Infants

The use of near-infrared spectroscopy in the study of typical and atypical development

Reactivity to fearful expressions of familiar and unfamiliar people in children with autism: an eye-tracking pupillometry study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About