Emotion recognition in children with autism spectrum disorders: relations to eye gaze and autonomic state. J Autism Dev Disord 2010 Mar;40(3):358-70
Date
11/04/2009Pubmed ID
19885725DOI
10.1007/s10803-009-0884-3Scopus ID
2-s2.0-77549084692 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 423 CitationsAbstract
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA), heart rate, and accuracy and latency of emotion recognition were evaluated in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing children while viewing videos of faces slowly transitioning from a neutral expression to one of six basic emotions (e.g., anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise). Children with ASD were slower in emotion recognition and selectively made more errors in detecting anger. ASD children had lower amplitude RSA and faster heart rate. Within the ASD group, children with higher amplitude RSA recognized emotions faster. Less severe ASD symptoms and increased gaze to the eye region in children with ASD were related to more accurate emotion recognition.
Author List
Bal E, Harden E, Lamb D, Van Hecke AV, Denver JW, Porges SWAuthor
Amy Van Hecke PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette UniversityMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentArrhythmia, Sinus
Autistic Disorder
Autonomic Nervous System
Child
Discrimination Learning
Emotions
Eye
Facial Expression
Female
Fixation, Ocular
Heart Rate
Humans
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photic Stimulation
Reaction Time
Respiration
Risk Factors
Severity of Illness Index
Social Perception
