Attention for Emotion—How Young Adults With Neurodevelopmental Disorders Look at Facial Expressions of Affect

Abstract

While Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Schizophrenia (SCZ) differ in many clinically relevant features such as symptomatology and course, they may also share genetic underpinnings, affective problems, deviancies in social interactions, and are all characterized by some kind of cognitive impairment. This situation calls for a joint investigation of the specifics of cognitive (dys-)functions of the three disorders. Such endeavor should focus, among other domains, on the inter-section of processing cognitive, affective and social information that is crucial in effective real-life interactions and can be accomplished when attentional preferences for human facial expressions of emotions is studied. To that end, attention to facial expressions of basic emotions was examined in young adults with ASD, ADHD, or SCZ in the present study. The three clinical groups were compared with an age-matched group of typically-developing participants (TD) during the free contemplation of five different facial emotions presented simultaneously, by varying identities, through the registration of eye movements. We showed, that dwell times and fixation counts differed for the different emotions in TD and in a highly similar way in ADHD. Patients with ASD differed from TD by showing a stronger differentiation between emotions and partially different attentional preferences. In contrast, the SCZ group showed an overall more restricted scanning behavior and a lack of differentiation between emotions. The ADHD group, showed an emotion-specific gazing pattern that was highly similar to that of controls. Thus, by analyzing eye movements, we were able to differentiate three different viewing patterns that allowed us to distinguish between the three clinical groups. This outcome suggests that attention for emotion may not tap into common pathophysiological processes and argues for a multi-dimensional approach to the grouping of disorders with neurodevelopmental etiology.

Deployment of attention to facial expressions varies as a function of emotional quality—but not in alexithymic individuals

“…Bretthauer et al. ( 71 ) found an attentional pattern similar to ours in typically developing young adults in a multi-stimulus paradigm and specifically an attentional preference for facial fear and avoidance tendencies for facial anger. Free-viewing studies using face pairs also provided evidence for the avoidance of angry facial expressions and attentional bias toward fearful faces in non-alexithymic children, adolescents, and adults ( 43 , 44 ).…”

“…Free-viewing studies using face pairs also provided evidence for the avoidance of angry facial expressions and attentional bias toward fearful faces in non-alexithymic children, adolescents, and adults ( 43 , 44 ). To avoid harmful consequences, fearful and angry faces require specific behavioral responses ( 71 ). Facial anger signals a proneness to engage in a conflict and is a sign of potential aggression and a direct threat ( 72 , 73 ), whereas facial fear is an indicator of an indirect threat (danger in the environment) and the expresser’s loss of control ( 74 ).…”