Facial Emotion Recognition in Children and Adolescents with Specific Learning Disorder

Abstract

Background: Some recent studies suggest that children and adolescents with different neurodevelopmental disorders perform worse in emotions recognition through facial expressions (ER) compared with typically developing peers. This impairment is also described in children with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), compromising their scholastic achievement, social functioning, and quality of life. The purpose of our study is to evaluate ER skills in children and adolescents with SLD compared to a control group without learning disorders, and correlate them with intelligence and executive functions. Materials and Methods: Our work is a cross-sectional observational study. Sixty-three children and adolescents aged between 8 and 16 years, diagnosed with SLD, and 32 sex/age-matched controls without learning disorders were recruited. All participants were administered standardized neuropsychological tests, evaluating facial emotion recognition (NEPSY-II), executive functions (EpiTrack Junior), and intelligence profile (WISC-IV). Results: Emotion recognition mean score was significantly lower in the SLD group than in the controls group on the Mann–Whitney U test for unpaired samples (p < 0.001). The SLD group performed significantly lower than the control group in their abilities to identify neutral expressions, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear compared to controls (p < 0.001). ER scores were positively correlated to the executive functions scores. There was no correlation with the Total Intelligence Quotient scores but there is a significant positive correlation with Working Memory Index and Processing Speed Index measured by WISC.IV. Conclusion: Our study showed that children and adolescents with Specific Learning Disorders have facial emotion recognition impairment when compared with a group of peers without learning disorders. ER abilities were independent of their global intelligence but potentially related to executive functions.

Social Cognition in Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Epilepsy

“…The results of our study also suggest that difficulties in social cognition are present not only in autism spectrum disorders, but also in other neuropsychiatric disorders impairing brain development in the early stages of life, with a different severity gradient ( 16 , 17 , 42 ).…”

“…This finding suggests that individuals with ASD have generalized difficulties in recognizing all facial expressions, even those that express positive emotions, which are more easily identified. The other two groups, on the contrary, have greater difficulties in recognizing negative emotions (whose discrimination matures later) with worse performance in the group with SLD than in the group with epilepsy ( 17 , 39 ).…”

“…Only in recent years have SC difficulties been identified in children with other neurodevelopment disorders, such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and specific learning disorder (SLD) ( 16 , 17 ), and in other neurological conditions that emerge in childhood, such as epilepsy ( 18 , 19 ).…”

Neurodevelopmental Pathways: Between Pathologisation and Neurodiversity

“…Effective neuropsychological tools are still lacking to define these limits, and we risk excessive pathologisation of neurodiversity. The hope is that progress in identifying causative, additive, or synergistic genetic variants and the progress of neuroimaging could provide us with additional tools for identifying subjects at risk for neurodevelopmental diseases [ 5 ].…”

Embracing the Complexity of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

“…Operto et al, in their study, demonstrate that children with specific learning disorders have difficulties in understanding facial expressions compared to a group of typically developing peers. This deficit in emotion recognition is totally independent from global intelligence, but it is related to executive functions, suggesting a possible common dysfunction between recognition performances and learning abilities [ 1 ].…”