Abstract
The results of this study indicate the need to develop interventions targeting EFP abilities for ASD. Children with ASD showed decreased valence, but not accuracy, of their positive-valence facial expressions. In ASD, there was a negative correlation between EFP accuracy and ASD symptoms related to social functioning. There were no relationships found between affect recognition accuracy and EFP accuracy.
Primary Author and Speaker: Sharada Krishnan
Additional Authors and Speakers: Emily Kilroy
Contributing Authors: Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Aditya Jayashankar, Anusha Hossain, Alexis Nalbach, Lisa Aziz-Zadeh
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in affect recognition (AR; Uljarevic and Hamilton, 2013), which can create barriers to communication and social functioning (Trevisan & Birmingham, 2016). Research also indicates that individuals with ASD produce atypical spontaneous and intentional facial expressions (Trevisan, Hoskyn, and Birmingham, 2018); however, the relationship between the quality of produced facial expressions and social functioning in ASD is not well understood. Understanding emotion communication in ASD is necessary for therapy aimed at improving social-emotional communication skills. This study investigates the relationship between intentional emotional face production (EFP), the severity of ASD symptoms implicated in social functioning, and AR in individuals with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers.
This quantitative study employed an experimental design. Participants aged 9-17 were recruited from clinics, schools, and social media groups within the Los Angeles area. All participants were right-handed, English speakers, and had an IQ > 80. Inclusion criteria for the ASD group was a clinical ASD diagnosis, and for the TD group was no existing psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders.
Twenty-two children and adolescents with ASD and 24 TD peers were filmed while acting out 11 different emotional expressions (i.e., happy, disgust) on command. Three-second videos of expressions were each rated on average 34.38 (SD=11.3) times by healthy college students in a survey, which included a scale for valence and a forced-choice emotion identification question. EFP accuracy was measured by the percentage of rater responses to forced-choice questions that matched the intended expression. Metrics of EFP were compared between groups, and Pearson correlations were conducted to relate EFP accuracy with the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), the Social Responsiveness Scale Second Edition (SRS-2), and the affect recognition subscale of the NEPSY-II.
Groups did not differ in EFP accuracy in any emotional expression except neutral. Compared to TD, ASD neutral expressions were rated as less accurate (p=.03) and were identified more frequently as negatively-valenced emotions. In all high-valence emotions (calm, happy, excited, and surprise) ASD EFP valence was consistently lower than the TD group (p<.05). In the ASD group, participants’ overall EFP accuracy was negatively correlated, though not significantly, with the SRS-2 Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behavior (RRB) subscale (R=-.419; p=.052). Fear, disgust, and overall EFP accuracy were negatively correlated with the SCQ Restricted Repetitive Stereotyped Behaviors subscale (R>-.48; p<.05). Disgust EFP accuracy was negatively correlated with the SCQ Reciprocal Social Interaction (RSI) subscale (R=-.473; p=.03) and total score (R=-.479; p =.03). No significant correlations were observed between EFP and AR.
These results indicate that while individuals with ASD do not have a deficit in producing expressions on command, their positive expressions are perceived as more negative than their TD peers. Moreover, the accuracy of ASD expressions is negatively related to the severity of core ASD symptoms, RRB and RSI. Taken together, the findings suggest that children with ASD have challenges with intentional EFP which may contribute to social-emotional communication difficulties and that EFP abilities and ASD symptom severity are linked. This data also suggests that mechanisms underlying AR and EFP are independent, and therefore that AR interventions should not be expected to translate to EFP ability in ASD. This information can inform the development of targeted interventions addressing social communication needs of children with ASD.
Trevisan, D. A., & Birmingham, E. (2016). Are emotion recognition abilities related to everyday social functioning in ASD? A meta-analysis. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 32, 24–42. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2016.08.004
Trevisan, D. A., Hoskyn, M., & Birmingham, E. (2018). Facial expression production in autism: A meta-analysis. Autism Research, 11(12), 1586–1601. doi: 10.1002/aur.2037
Uljarevic, M., & Hamilton, A. (2012). Recognition of emotions in autism: A formal meta-analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(7), 1517–1526. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1695-5