Individuals with Autism can Categorize Facial Expressions

Homer, Michelle; Rutherford, M. D.

doi:10.1080/09297040802291715

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…When task demands are taken into account, the evidence does not support a general FER accuracy deficit in high-functioning adolescents and adults with ASD. Although some studies do show such a deficit (Dalton et al 2005;Macdonald et al 1989;Tantam et al 1989) others do not (Baron-Cohen et al 1997;Capps et al 1992;Homer and Rutherford 2008), at least when analysis is limited to the six basic emotions. Highfunctioning individuals do appear to have more difficulty recognizing complex emotions, such as guilt, shame, and envy (e.g., Baron-Cohen et al 1997).…”

Section: Task Demandsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Both Homer and Rutherford (2008) and Teunisse and de Gelder (2001) used mixed facial expressions to examine categorical perception differences between high-functioning adults with ASD and controls, and the former study found no abnormalities in ASD, while the latter study did. However, Homer and Rutherford (2008) found increased reaction times in the ASD group (Teunisse and de Gelder did not report whether there were group differences in reaction times). Another study using blended expressions (Castelli 2005) found no differences between children with ASD at various levels of functioning (mental age ranged from 6-14) and TD controls; however, group matching in this study was not very precise.…”

Section: Task Demandsmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies

Harms

Martin²,

Wallace³

2010

Neuropsychol Rev

851

691

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Behavioral studies of facial emotion recognition (FER) in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have yielded mixed results. Here we address demographic and experiment-related factors that may account for these inconsistent findings. We also discuss the possibility that compensatory mechanisms might enable some individuals with ASD to perform well on certain types of FER tasks in spite of atypical processing of the stimuli, and difficulties with real-life emotion recognition. Evidence for such mechanisms comes in part from eye-tracking, electrophysiological, and brain imaging studies, which often show abnormal eye gaze patterns, delayed event-related-potential components in response to face stimuli, and anomalous activity in emotion-processing circuitry in ASD, in spite of intact behavioral performance during FER tasks. We suggest that future studies of FER in ASD: 1) incorporate longitudinal (or cross-sectional) designs to examine the developmental trajectory of (or age-related changes in) FER in ASD and 2) employ behavioral and brain imaging paradigms that can identify and characterize compensatory mechanisms or atypical processing styles in these individuals.

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Section: Task Demandsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Task Demandsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies

Harms

Martin²,

Wallace³

2010

Neuropsychol Rev

851

691

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, Homer and Rutherford (2004) found that individuals with ASD do process faces holistically, at least under some circumstances. When the authors used a delayed matching task with relatively short presentation times of the face stimuli (750 ms) that would encourage holistic processing (Celani, Battacchi, & Arcidiacono, 1999;Hole, 1994), they found that individuals with ASD perceived emotional expressions categorically as did their age-, gender-, and IQ-matched control group.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Converging evidence of configural processing of faces in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorders

2008

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There is conflicting evidence about whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate configural processing of faces. We examined two types of configural processing of unfamiliar faces in high-functioning adults with ASD: Holistic processing (processing a face as a gestalt percept) and processing of second-order relations (the spatial relations among facial features, e.g., distance between two eyes). Compared to age-and IQ-matched typical adults, 17 adults with ASD demonstrated normal holistic processing (as demonstrated by the composite face effect), normal sensitivity to second-order relations in upright faces, and the expected disruption of sensitivity to second-order relations in inverted faces. They were also normal in using the internal features and shape of the external contour to make same/different judgements about facial identity. The results provide converging evidence of configural processing of unfamiliar faces in high-functioning adults with ASD, and bring into question the generalizability of previous reports of abnormal face processing in individuals with ASD.Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not always show typical face processing. For example, adults typically show a face inversion effect: Inversion disrupts the recognition of faces more than other visual stimuli such as aeroplanes and houses (Yin, 1969). Individuals with ASD are worse than typical individuals at face recognition (e.g., Behrmann et al., 2006), and also tend to show a much smaller inversion effect (e.g., Hobson,

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“…In another study using emotion blends, Teunisse and de Gelder (2001) found atypical responses to anger-sadness and anger-fear blends but intact responses to happy-sad blends among individuals with ASD. In contrast, Homer and Rutherford (2008) used numerous emotion blends and documented primarily intact performance among individuals with ASD. Only one study has examined FER perceptual sensitivity based on fine grain progressions from neutral to full expression (using the emotional multimorph task) among individuals with ASD.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diminished Sensitivity to Sad Facial Expressions in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders is Associated with Symptomatology and Adaptive Functioning

Wallace

Case

Harms

et al. 2011

J Autism Dev Disord

112

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Prior studies implicate facial emotion recognition (FER) difficulties among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, many investigations focus on FER accuracy alone and few examine ecological validity through links with everyday functioning. We compared FER accuracy and perceptual sensitivity (from neutral to full expression) between 42 adolescents with high functioning (IQ>80) ASD and 31 typically developing adolescents (matched on age, IQ, sex ratio) across six basic emotions and examined links between FER and symptomatology/adaptive functioning within the ASD group. Adolescents with ASD required more intense facial expressions for accurate emotion identification. Controlling for this overall group difference revealed particularly diminished sensitivity to sad facial expressions in ASD, which was uniquely correlated with ratings of autism-related behavior and adaptive functioning.

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Individuals with Autism can Categorize Facial Expressions

Cited by 28 publications

References 32 publications

Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies

Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies

Converging evidence of configural processing of faces in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorders

Diminished Sensitivity to Sad Facial Expressions in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders is Associated with Symptomatology and Adaptive Functioning

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