The Effect of Inversion on 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. In this study, we tested ASE in children with and without ASD using upright/ inverted schematic faces to explore the face-processing style employed by them during detection of emotional faces. The results revealed that faster detection of angry faces over happy faces was observed in both TD and ASD children. Interestingly, however, the effect was stronger in children with ASD compared to TD children when faces were inverted. These findings suggest that different face-processing style would be employed or different mechanisms of emotional processing would underlie the quick detection of angry faces in children with and without ASD.

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

“…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.…”