Emotion Recognition and Visual-Scan Paths in Fragile X Syndrome

Abstract

This study investigated emotion recognition abilities and visual scanning of emotional faces in 16 Fragile X syndrome (FXS) individuals compared to 16 chronological-age and 16 mental-age matched controls. The relationships between emotion recognition, visual scan-paths and symptoms of social anxiety, schizotypy and autism were also explored. Results indicated that, compared to both control groups, the FXS group displayed specific emotion recognition deficits for angry and neutral (but not happy or fearful) facial expressions. Despite these evident emotion recognition deficits, the visual scanning of emotional faces was found to be at developmentally appropriate levels in the FXS group. Significant relationships were also observed between visual scan-paths, emotion recognition performance and symptomology in the FXS group.

Quantifying naturalistic social gaze in fragile X syndrome using a novel eye tracking paradigm

“…Previous investigations employing eye tracking methodology to quantify social gaze in individuals with FXS have been limited by poor ecological validity. For example, the literature is replete with studies in which participants have been required to passively view social scenes on video or to view static images of faces [Cornish et al, 2007; Dalton et al, ; Holsen et al, ; Farzin et al, ; Shaw and Porter, ; Williams et al, ]. In these studies, we believe that a crucial aspect of the social milieu is missing – namely the back‐and‐forth interaction with a live person.…”

“…Part of the problem concerns the difficulty of setting up an experimental situation in which eye tracking data can be collected simultaneously while the person is engaged in a conversation with a “live” person. Studies conducted to date have therefore been limited to showing static photographs of faces or videos to individuals with FXS and quantifying which areas of the face are most commonly viewed [Cornish et al, ; Dalton et al, ; Holsen et al, ; Shaw and Porter, ; Williams et al, ]. In a study conducted by Farzin et al [], for example, photographs of faces that depicted various emotions were presented to 16 individuals with FXS (13 male, 3 female) and 16 typically developing controls.…”

Implicit Discrimination of Basic Facial Expressions of Positive/Negative Emotion in Fragile X Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Two primary studies are often referred to for demonstrating spared emotion recognition abilities in males with FXS (Simon & Finucane, 1996;Turk & Cornish, 1998). Turk and Cornish (1998) used three tasks to assess emotion perception in boys with FXS.…”

The contribution of inhibitory interneurons to circuit dysfunction in Fragile X Syndrome

“…Indeed, although premutation carriers of FMRP lead to a different syndrome (FXTAS), they showed an absence of cerebellar inhibition over primary motor cortex and a reduced GABA-mediated intracortical and afferent inhibition compared with healthy individuals (Conde et al, 2013) that could potentially also be present in FXS patients. Moreover, FXS patients display specific emotion recognition deficits for angry and neutral (but not happy or fearful) facial expressions through visual scanning tasks (Shaw and Porter, 2013), that in turn is directly related to formation and function of neuronal circuits attributed to behavioral processes such as fear, emotion recognition and anxiety carried out by the amygdala (Olmos-Serrano and Corbin, 2011; Kim et al, 2014). These socio-emotional deficits are also associated with deficits in neuronal processing of sensory systems.…”