Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation EEG Reveals Reduced Neural Sensitivity to Fearful Faces in Children with Autism

Donck, Stephanie Van der; Dzhelyova, Milena; Vettori, Sofie; Thielen, Hella; Steyaert, Jean; Rossion, Bruno; Boets, Bart

doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04172-0

Cited by 26 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 104 publications

(150 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, the response amplitudes indicate a substantially reduced emotion-specific neural sensitivity in the ASD group: In contrast to studies describing a general emotion-processing deficit in ASD, we only observed selectively lower responses to angry and fearful faces, as compared to TDs. These findings confirm and extend our previously reported results (Van der Donck et al, 2019).…”

Section: Reduced Neural Sensitivity To Expressive Faces In Asd Is Emosupporting

confidence: 94%

“…With the present study, we consolidate and extend the findings of a lower neural sensitivity in schoolaged boys with ASD to rapidly detect fearful faces, as compared to matched TDs (Van der Donck et al, 2019). Here, by applying FPVS-EEG with several facial emotions, we can broaden our understanding of the underlying neural nature of facial expression processing in ASD: Is this lower neural sensitivity emotion-specific (e.g., only for fear) or general (i.e., generalizable to multiple expressions)?…”

Section: Present Studysupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Lower neural sensitivity to facial anger and fear in ASD equally distributed across medial-occipital and occipito-temporal sites (Van der Donck et al, 2019). Here, however, the expression-discrimination responses are clearly distributed over occipito-temporal sites, with a right hemisphere advantage, and thereby resemble the topographical patterns of adults (Dzhelyova et al, 2017).…”

Section: Similar Topographical Maps In Boys With and Without Asdmentioning

confidence: 74%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder

Donck

Dzhelyova²,

Vettori

et al. 2020

Child Psychology Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Difficulties with facial expression processing may be associated with the characteristic social impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Emotional face processing in ASD has been investigated in an abundance of behavioral and EEG studies, yielding, however, mixed and inconsistent results. Methods: We combined fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with EEG to assess the neural sensitivity to implicitly detect briefly presented facial expressions among a stream of neutral faces, in 23 boys with ASD and 23 matched typically developing (TD) boys. Neutral faces with different identities were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with an expressive face (angry, fearful, happy, sad in separate sequences) every fifth image (i.e., 1.2 Hz oddball frequency). These distinguishable frequency tags for neutral and expressive stimuli allowed direct and objective quantification of the expression-categorization responses, needing only four sequences of 60 s of recording per condition. Results: Both groups show equal neural synchronization to the general face stimulation and similar neural responses to happy and sad faces. However, the ASD group displays significantly reduced responses to angry and fearful faces, compared to TD boys. At the individual subject level, these neural responses allow to predict membership of the ASD group with an accuracy of 87%. Whereas TD participants show a significantly lower sensitivity to sad faces than to the other expressions, ASD participants show an equally low sensitivity to all the expressions. Conclusions: Our results indicate an emotion-specific processing deficit, instead of a general emotionprocessing problem: Boys with ASD are less sensitive than TD boys to rapidly and implicitly detect angry and fearful faces. The implicit, fast, and straightforward nature of FPVS-EEG opens new perspectives for clinical diagnosis.

show abstract

Section: Reduced Neural Sensitivity To Expressive Faces In Asd Is Emosupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Present Studysupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Similar Topographical Maps In Boys With and Without Asdmentioning

confidence: 74%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder

Donck

Dzhelyova²,

Vettori

et al. 2020

Child Psychology Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This novel tool offers great advantages in terms of objectivity in the identification and quantification of selective responses of interest in the frequency domain of the EEG spectrum, as well as high sensitivity (i.e., high signal-to-noise ratio). A pioneering study by Van der Donck et al (124,125) applied a frequency-tagging EEG oddball paradigm to assess the neural sensitivity for rapid changes in emotional expressions, revealing reduced neural discrimination responses for fearful and angry faces in children with ASD and predicting clinical status with an 87% accuracy at the individual level.…”

Section: Eeg Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To dissociate these alternatives, EEG paradigms directly contrasting neutral and emotional facial expressions are needed. A particularly promising approach for this would be the administration of a fast periodic visual stimulation oddball frequency-tagging paradigm, as has been applied in ASD (124,125). Thus far, this method has not been applied in primary psychosis, but it was recently administered in patients with velocardiofacial (22q11.2 deletion) syndrome, which is a well-known high-risk group for psychosis (147).…”

Section: Eeg Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial Expression Processing Across the Autism–Psychosis Spectra: A Review of Neural Findings and Associations With Adverse Childhood Events

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Investigating automatic emotion processing in boys with autism via eye tracking and facial mimicry recordings

Donck

Vettori

Dzhelyova³

et al. 2021

Autism Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Difficulties in automatic emotion processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might remain concealed in behavioral studies due to compensatory strategies. To gain more insight in the mechanisms underlying facial emotion recognition, we recorded eye tracking and facial mimicry data of 20 school-aged boys with ASD and 20 matched typically developing controls while performing an explicit emotion recognition task. Proportional looking times to specific face regions (eyes, nose, and mouth) and face exploration dynamics were analyzed. In addition, facial mimicry was assessed. Boys with ASD and controls were equally capable to recognize expressions and did not differ in proportional looking times, and number and duration of fixations. Yet, specific facial expressions elicited particular gaze patterns, especially within the control group. Both groups showed similar face scanning dynamics, although boys with ASD demonstrated smaller saccadic amplitudes. Regarding the facial mimicry, we found no emotion specific facial responses and no group differences in the responses to the displayed facial expressions. Our results indicate that boys with and without ASD employ similar eye gaze strategies to recognize facial expressions. Smaller saccadic amplitudes in boys with ASD might indicate a less exploratory face processing strategy. Yet, this slightly more persistent visual scanning behavior in boys with ASD does not imply less efficient emotion information processing, given the similar behavioral performance. Results on the facial mimicry data indicate similar facial responses to emotional faces in boys with and without ASD. Lay Summary: We investigated (i) whether boys with and without autism apply different face exploration strategies when recognizing facial expressions and (ii) whether they mimic the displayed facial expression to a similar extent. We found that boys with and without ASD recognize facial expressions equally well, and that both groups show similar facial reactions to the displayed facial emotions. Yet, boys with ASD visually explored the faces slightly less than the boys without ASD.

show abstract

Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation EEG Reveals Reduced Neural Sensitivity to Fearful Faces in Children with Autism

Cited by 26 publications

References 104 publications

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder

Facial Expression Processing Across the Autism–Psychosis Spectra: A Review of Neural Findings and Associations With Adverse Childhood Events

Investigating automatic emotion processing in boys with autism via eye tracking and facial mimicry recordings

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About