Autism and emotional face-viewing.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_D5C59DD89CD1
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Autism and emotional face-viewing.
Journal
Autism research
Author(s)
Åsberg Johnels J., Hovey D., Zürcher N., Hippolyte L., Lemonnier E., Gillberg C., Hadjikhani N.
ISSN
1939-3806 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1939-3806
Publication state
Published
Issued date
05/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
10
Number
5
Pages
901-910
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Atypical patterns of face-scanning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may contribute to difficulties in social interactions, but there is little agreement regarding what exactly characterizes face-viewing in ASD. In addition, little research has examined how face-viewing is modulated by the emotional expression of the stimuli, in individuals with or without ASD. We used eye-tracking to explore viewing patterns during perception of dynamic emotional facial expressions in relatively large groups of individuals with (n = 57) and without ASD (n = 58) and examined diagnostic- and age-related effects, after subgrouping children and adolescents (≤18 years), on the one hand, and adults (>18 years), on the other. Results showed that children/adolescents with ASD fixated the mouth of happy and angry faces less than their typically developing (TD) peers, and conversely looked more to the eyes of happy faces. Moreover, while all groups fixated the mouth in happy faces more than in other expressions, children/adolescents with ASD did relatively less so. Correlation analysis showed a similar lack of relative orientation towards the mouth of smiling faces in TD children/adolescents with high autistic traits, as measured by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Among adults, participants with ASD only attended less to the eyes for neutral faces. Our study shows that the emotional content of a face influences gaze behaviour, and that this effect is not fully developed in children/adolescents with ASD. Interestingly, this lack of differentiation observed in the younger ASD group was also seen in younger TD individuals with higher AQ scores. Autism Res 2017, 10: 901-910. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords
Adolescent, Adult, Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology, Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology, Emotions/physiology, Eye Movements/physiology, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Male, Social Behavior, autism, autism quotient, endophenotype, eye-tracking, face, mouth, social
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
06/12/2016 18:43
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:55
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