Testing the effects of expression, intensity and age on emotional face processing in ASD

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 126; pp. 128 - 137
• Main Authors: Luyster, Rhiannon J., Bick, Johanna, Westerlund, Alissa, Nelson, Charles A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 18-03-2019
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Autism spectrum disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder - physiopathology; Child; Electroencephalography; Emotion perception; Emotions - physiology; ERP; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Face processing; Facial Expression; Facial Recognition - physiology; Humans; Male; Social cognition; Social Perception; Young Adult; ERP; Face processing; Autism spectrum disorder; Emotion perception; Social cognition
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.06.023

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly show global deficits in the processing of facial emotion, including impairments in emotion recognition and slowed processing of emotional faces. Growing evidence has suggested that these challenges may increase with age, perhaps due to minimal improvement with age in individuals with ASD. In the present study, we explored the role of age, emotion type and emotion intensity in face processing for individuals with and without ASD. Twelve- and 18–22- year-old children with and without ASD participated. No significant diagnostic group differences were observed on behavioral measures of emotion processing for younger versus older individuals with and without ASD. However, there were significant group differences in neural responses to emotional faces. Relative to TD, at 12 years of age and during adulthood, individuals with ASD showed slower N170 to emotional faces. While the TD groups’ P1 latency was significantly shorter in adults when compared to 12 year olds, there was no significant age-related difference in P1 latency among individuals with ASD. Findings point to potential differences in the maturation of cortical networks that support visual processing (whether of faces or stimuli more broadly), among individuals with and without ASD between late childhood and adulthood. Finally, associations between ERP amplitudes and behavioral responses on emotion processing tasks suggest possible neural markers for emotional and behavioral deficits among individuals with ASD.
•No diagnostic group differences were observed on a behavioral sort task.•In the typically developing group, the P1 latency shortened with age.•There was no age-related difference in P1 latency among individuals with ASD.•Relative to the typically developing group, the ASD group showed a slowed N170.•Smaller P1 amplitudes were associated with more sort errors and ASD symptoms.