Facial Emotion Recognition in Children with High Functioning Autism and Children with Social Phobia

Abstract

Recognizing facial affect is essential for effective social functioning. This study examines emotion recognition abilities in children aged 7-13 years with High Functioning Autism (HFA = 19), Social Phobia (SP = 17), or typical development (TD = 21). Findings indicate that all children identified certain emotions more quickly (e.g., happy < anger, disgust, sad < fear) and more accurately (happy) than other emotions (disgust). No evidence was found for negative interpretation biases in children with HFA or SP (i.e., all groups showed similar ability to discriminate neutral from non-neutral facial expressions). However, distinct between-group differences emerged when considering facial expression intensity. Specifically, children with HFA detected mild affective expressions less accurately than TD peers. Behavioral ratings of social effectiveness or social anxiety were uncorrelated with facial affect recognition abilities across children. Findings have implications for social skills treatment programs targeting youth with skill deficits.

Shyness, Social Anxiety, and Social Phobia

“…Of note, however, is a recent study of children with Social Phobia, High Functioning Autism and normal controls (ages 7-13 years), wherein no evidence was found for negative interpretation biases in children with SP or HFA who were similar to normal controls (Wong, Beidel, Sarver, & Sims, 2012). Children with HFA were less accurate in detecting mild affective expressions than controls.…”

Wanting it Too Much: An Inverse Relation Between Social Motivation and Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…First, we hypothesized that social motivation would be positively correlated with performance on the FER task. As previous studies [6, 14, 15] have indicated specific stimuli that produce difficulty in FER, we hypothesized that this effect would be especially evident for low intensity emotions, adult faces, and anger. Second, we hypothesized that early-stage face perception, or N170 latency, would be negatively correlated with performance on the FER task (i.e.…”

“…Indeed, these two processes may uniquely facilitate FER. Research indicates that deficits in FER are varied and may be affected by multiple components [13–15]. Examination of these two hypotheses (perceptual/cognitive and motivational/affective) is crucial for clarifying the role of social motivation and perceptual aspects of FER in ASD.…”

“…Greater deficits in FER are found when individuals with ASD are presented with adult facial expressions [14] and subtler ‘‘low intensity’’ emotions [15], particularly among negative emotions such as anger [15, 41]. Recognition of anger has been found to be particularly difficult for individuals with ASD [41–43].…”

“…First, adult facial expressions compared to child facial expressions have been shown to present greater difficulties for individuals with ASD during FER tasks [14]. Second, more subtle low intensity (versus high intensity) emotional stimuli have been found to be more difficult during FER tasks for participants with ASD [15]. Third, FER for negative emotions, especially anger, compared to positive emotions has been shown to be diminished in individuals with ASD [41].…”