Preliminary evidence that different mechanisms underlie the anger superiority effect in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that angry faces capture humans' attention more rapidly than emotionally positive faces. This phenomenon is referred to as the anger superiority effect (ASE). Despite atypical emotional processing, adults and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been reported to show ASE as well as typically developed (TD) individuals. So far, however, few studies have clarified whether or not the mechanisms underlying ASE are the same for both TD and ASD individuals. Here, we tested how TD and ASD children process schematic emotional faces during detection by employing a recognition task in combination with a face-in-the-crowd task. Results of the face-in-the-crowd task revealed the prevalence of ASE both in TD and ASD children. However, the results of the recognition task revealed group differences: In TD children, detection of angry faces required more configural face processing and disrupted the processing of local features. In ASD children, on the other hand, it required more feature-based processing rather than configural processing. Despite the small sample sizes, these findings provide preliminary evidence that children with ASD, in contrast to TD children, show quick detection of angry faces by extracting local features in faces.

The perceptions and experiences of adolescent boys with autism spectrum disorder: A personal construct psychology perspective

“…Interestingly, none of the adolescents discussed this reported difficulty as a challenge for them, which may indicate their minimal awareness of their troubles identifying negative emotions. Research in this area supports these findings, as it indicates that individuals with ASD process negative facial expressions differently, and less efficiently, than NTD controls (Farran, Branson, & King, 2011;Isomura, Ogawa, Yamada, Shibasaki, & Masataka, 2014;Pelphrey et al, 2002). Such processing differences have been understood to reflect the deficits in facial affect recognition, particularly of negative expressions, evident in some individuals with ASD (Farran et al, 2011;Pelphrey et al, 2002).…”

Absence of Predispositional Attentional Sensitivity to Angry Faces in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…However, they may compensatorily acquire attentional sensitivity to angry faces during development. Supporting this hypothesis, a recent study provided preliminary evidence for different underlying cognitive mechanisms even though individuals with ASD showed similar ASE as TD individuals 25 .…”

“…In the current study, we used a touch-sensitive monitor to measure the response. Unlike many previous studies that used a keyboard or button for participants' resposes 1 8 13 14 22 23 , we used a recently developed touch-screen method that has also been reported to show a clear effect of threat detection advantage 22 23 24 25 26 . In the keyboard or button procedure, participants are required to judge the presence or absence of a target within a matrix.…”

Threatening faces fail to guide attention for adults with autistic‐like traits

“…Notably, the efficient processing of faces is believed to depend largely on the successful development of a holistic or configural processing style [De Sonneville et al, ]. Whereas neurotypical individuals tend to develop a more configural processing style for face processing [Tanaka & Farah, ], ASD individuals often show a preference for using more piecemeal processing styles across both facial and non‐facial stimuli [Behrmann, Thomas, & Humphreys, ; Behrmann et al, ; Isomura, Ogawa, Yamada, Shibasaki, & Masataka, ; see Happé & Frith, for a review].…”