The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Developmental Theory

Gaigg, Sebastian

doi:10.3389/fnint.2012.00113

Cited by 116 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 388 publications

(355 reference statements)

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“…The existence and extent of emotional impairments in ASD has become a debated topic. Recent reviews indicate that individuals with ASD indeed have difficulty in processing emotional stimuli, but it is still debated whether those difficulties are secondary to other cognitive domains or constitute an independent problem (Nuske et al 2013;Gaigg 2012). Our results support the theoretical position that emotional impairments extend beyond the visual domain to emotional language and are a relatively independent component of ASD.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Many researchers also linked problems in emotion understanding to Theory of Mind deficits (Baron-Cohen et al 2001;Heerey et al 2003;Hillier and Allinson 2002). In contrast, other scholars argued that emotional impairments are more widespread and extend beyond the social domain (e.g., Gaigg 2012). Yet other authors argue that emotional impairments are not universal in ASD, which means that there is a lot of heterogeneity in the results across different groups of ASD participants and across different tasks, and that the impairments are not specific to emotion (Nuske et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…As a third option, we should consider that some of the previous studies that found the behavioral reactions to emotion words in ASD and typically developing participants to be different, based their conclusions on finding a significant effect in the typical group in the absence of an effect in the ASD group, while their main effects of group or the group by valence interaction did not reach significance (Gaigg andBowler 2008, 2009a;Dichter et al 2010). This throws some doubt on these studies with respect to their power to assess whether the ASD and control groups were really different or similar in behavioral performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies on memory performance found that emotional valence had little or no effect in the ASD group, in contrast to the typical population when participants were asked to remember and subsequently recall emotional sentences (Beversdorf et al 1998), images (Wilbarger et al 2009;Deruelle et al 2008), and single words (Gaigg andBowler 2008, 2009b). However, other studies failed to replicate this finding (South et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

Lartseva

Dijkstra

Kan

et al. 2014

J Autism Dev Disord

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This study investigated processing of emotion words in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using reaction times and event-related potentials (ERP). Adults with (n = 21) and without (n = 20) ASD performed a lexical decision task on emotion and neutral words while their brain activity was recorded. Both groups showed faster responses to emotion words compared to neutral, suggesting intact early processing of emotion in ASD. In the ERPs, the control group showed a typical late positive component (LPC) at 400-600 ms for emotion words compared to neutral, while the ASD group showed no LPC. The between-group difference in LPC amplitude was significant, suggesting that emotion words were processed differently by individuals with ASD, although their behavioral performance was similar to that of typical individuals.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

Lartseva

Dijkstra

Kan

et al. 2014

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…, by social symptoms and atypicalities in elementary aspects of perception, as in the case of visual processing of emotional and neutral facial expressions 2 . For some researchers, it may be a consequence of the poor neural connectivity in ASD, particularly to and within prefrontal and parietal regions 3 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain stimulation used as biofeedback in neuronal activation of the temporal lobe area in autistic children

Silva

Calomeni

Nunes

et al. 2016

Arq. Neuro-Psiquiatr.

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ARTICLE Brain stimulation used as biofeedback in neuronal activation of the temporal lobe area in autistic childrenEstimulação cerebral usada como biofeedback na ativação neural do lobo temporal em crianças autistas Thus, it is generally accepted that individuals with some form of ASD display at least some impairment in recognizing emotions through facial expressions 4 , although there are a host of inconsistent results 5 . However, the automatic mirroring of affective gestures and expressions is also considerably weaker in infants with ASD 6 and the differences in emotion processing between typically developing individuals and their peers with ASD are also observable at a neural level 6 . ABSTRACTThis study focused upon the functional capacity of mirror neurons in autistic children. 30 individuals, 10 carriers of the autistic syndrome (GCA), 10 with intellectual impairments (GDI), and 10 non-autistics (GCN) had registered eletroencephalogram from the brain area theoretically related to mirror neurons. Data collection procedure occurred prior to brain stimulation and after the stimulation session. During the second session, participants had to alternately process figures evoking neutral, happy, and/or sorrowful feelings. Results proved that, for all groups, the stimulation process in fact produced additional activation in the neural area under study. The level of activation was related to the format of emotional stimuli and the likelihood of boosting such stimuli. Since the increase of activation occurred in a model similar to the one observed for the control group, we may suggest that the difficulty people with autism have at expressing emotions is not due to nonexistence of mirror neurons.Keywords: autistic disorder; mirror neurons; emotions. RESUMOO estudo verificou a capacidade funcional dos neurônios-espelho em crianças autistas. 30 indivíduos, sendo 10 portadores da síndrome autista (GCA), 10 com deficiência intelectual (GDI), e 10 não-autistas (GCN) tiveram registrado o eletroencefalograma da área do cérebro relacionada teoricamente com os neurônios espelho. O procedimento de coleta de dados ocorreu antes e após uma sessão de estimulação cerebral. Durante a segunda coleta de dados, os participantes tiveram de processar alternadamente figuras evocando sentimentos neutros, felizes e tristes. Os resultados provaram que, para todos os grupos, o processo de estimulação de fato produziu ativação adicional na área neural em estudo. O nível de ativação foi relacionada com o formato dos estímulos emocionais. Uma vez que o aumento da ativação ocorreu em um modelo semelhante ao observado para o grupo controle, pode-se sugerir que as pessoas com autismo têm dificuldade em expressar emoções não devido à inexistência de neurônios-espelho.Palavras-chave: transtorno autístico; neurônios-espelho; emoções.

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Patterns of Nonsocial and Social Cognitive Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

2019

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IMPORTANCE Many studies have investigated impairments in cognitive domains in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, to date, a comprehensive overview on the patterns of cognitive functioning is lacking.OBJECTIVE To provide an overview of nonsocial and social cognitive functioning in various domains in adults with ASD, allowing for comparison of the severity of deficits between different domains. DATA SOURCES A literature search performed in an academic medical setting was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and Medline databases with the combination of the following free-text and Medical Subject Headings where applicable: [cogniti* OR neurocogniti* OR neuropsycholog* OR executive function* OR IQ OR intelligence quotient OR social cognition OR emotion perception OR affect perception OR emotion recognition OR attribution OR ToM OR mentalising OR mentalizing OR prosody OR social knowledge OR mind reading OR social cue OR social judgment] AND [autis* OR ASD OR Asperger OR Asperger's OR PDD OR pervasive developmental disorder]. The search was further limited to studies published between 1980 (first inclusion of autism diagnosis in the DSM-III) and July 2018.STUDY SELECTION Studies included were published as a primary peer-reviewed research article in English, included individuals with ASD 16 years or older, and assessed at least 1 domain of neurocognitive functioning or social cognition using standard measures.DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS Of 9892 articles identified and screened, 75 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review and meta-analysis.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Hedges g effect sizes were computed, and random-effects models were used for all analyses. Moderators of between-study variability in effect sizes were assessed using meta-regressions. RESULTSThe systematic review and meta-analysis included 75 studies, with a combined sample of 3361 individuals with ASD (mean [SD] age, 32.0 [9.3] years; 75.9% male) and 5344 neurotypical adults (mean [SD] age, 32.3 [9.1] years; 70.1% male). Adults with ASD showed large impairments in theory of mind (g = −1.09; 95% CI, −1.25 to −0.92; number of studies = 39) and emotion perception and processing (g = −0.80; 95% CI, −1.04 to −0.55; n = 18), followed by medium impairments in processing speed (g = −0.61; 95% CI, −0.83 to −0.38; n = 21) and verbal learning and memory (g = −0.55; 95% CI, −0.86 to −0.25; n = 12). The least altered cognitive domains were attention and vigilance (g = −0.30; 95% CI, −0.81 to 0.21; n = 5) and working memory (g = −0.23; 95% CI, −0.47 to 0.01; n = 19). Meta-regressions confirmed robustness of the results. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEResults of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that adults with ASD show impairments in social cognitive domains and in specific nonsocial cognitive domains. These findings contribute to the understanding of the patterns of cognitive functioning in adults with ASD and may assist in the identification of targets for cognitive interventions.

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The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Developmental Theory

Cited by 116 publications

References 388 publications

Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

Processing of Emotion Words by Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Reaction Times and EEG

Brain stimulation used as biofeedback in neuronal activation of the temporal lobe area in autistic children

Patterns of Nonsocial and Social Cognitive Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

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