Top

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

18-01-2024 | Original Paper

Emotional Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Condition: A Study of Attentional Orienting and Inhibitory Control

Auteurs: Rosa Sahuquillo-Leal, Manuel Perea, Alba Moreno-Giménez, Ladislao Salmerón, Julia Andreu, Diana Pons, Máximo Vento, Ana García-Blanco

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 2/2025

Abstract

A core feature of Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) is the presence of difficulties in social interactions. This can be explained by an atypical attentional processing of social information: individuals with ASC may show problems with orienting attention to socially relevant stimuli and/or inhibiting their attentional responses to irrelevant ones. To shed light on this issue, we examined attentional orienting and inhibitory control to emotional stimuli (angry, happy, and neutral faces). An antisaccade task (with both prosaccade and antisacade blocks) was applied to a final sample of 29 children with ASC and 27 children with typical development (TD). Whereas children with ASC committed more antisaccade errors when seeing angry faces than happy or neutral ones, TD children committed more antisaccade errors when encountering happy faces than neutral faces. Furthermore, latencies in the prosaccade and antisaccade blocks were longer in children with ASC and they were associated with the severity of ASC symptoms. Thus, children with ASC showed an impaired inhibitory control when angry faces were presented. This bias to negative high-arousal information is congruent with affective information-processing theories on ASC, suggesting that threatening stimuli induce an overwhelming response in ASC. Therapeutic strategies where train the shift attention to emotional stimuli (i.e. faces) may improve ASC symptomatology and their socials functioning.

vorige artikel Developing a Measure of Key Adult Outcomes in Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Conceptual Model and Item Generation of the REALS (Relationships, Employment, Autonomy, and Life Satisfaction)

volgende artikel Effectiveness of Robotic Intervention on Improving Social Development and Participation of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder – A Randomised Controlled Trial

Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbroch, C. S. (1991). Manual for the child behavior checklist and revised child profile. Burlington: University of Vermouth.

Agam, Y., Joseph, R. M., Barton, J. J. S., & Manoach, D. S. (2010). Reduced cognitive control of response inhibition by the anterior cingulate cortex in autism spectrum disorders. Neuroimage, 52(1), 336–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.04.010.CrossRefPubMed

American Psychological Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.CrossRef

Bastiaansen, J. A., Thioux, M., Nanetti, L., Van Der Gaag, C., Ketelaars, C., Minderaa, R., & Keysers, C. (2011). Age-related increase in inferior frontal gyrus activity and social functioning in autism spectrum disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 69(9), 832–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.11.007.CrossRefPubMed

Beall, P. M., Moody, E. J., McIntosh, D. N., Hepburn, S. L., & Reed, C. L. (2008). Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 101(3), 206–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2008.04.004.CrossRefPubMed

Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: New American Library.

Chawarska, K., MacAri, S., & Shic, F. (2012). Context modulates attention to social scenes in toddlers with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 53(8), 903–913. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02538.x.CrossRefPubMed

Dawson, G., Webb, S. J., & Mcpartland, J. (2005). Understanding the nature of Face Processing Impairment in Autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies. Developmental Neuropsychology, 27(3), 403–424. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326942dn2703_6.CrossRefPubMed

Derakshan, N., Salt, M., & Koster, E. H. W. (2009). Attentional control in dysphoria: An investigation using the antisaccade task. Biological Psychology, 80(2), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.09.005.CrossRefPubMed

Ebner, N. C., Riediger, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2010). FACES-a database of facial expressions in young, middle-aged, and older women and men: Development and validation. Behavior Research Methods, 42(1), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.1.351.CrossRefPubMed

Falck-Ytter, T., Bölte, S., & Gredebäck, G. (2013). Eye tracking in early autism research. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/1866-1955-5-28.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

García-Blanco, A. C., Perea, M., & Salmerón, L. (2013). Attention orienting and inhibitory control across the different mood states in bipolar disorder: An emotional antisaccade task. Biological Psychology, 94, 556–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.10.005.CrossRefPubMed

García-Blanco, A. C., Yáñez, N., Vázquez, M. A., Marcos, I., & Perea, M. (2017). Modulation of attention by socio-emotional scenes in children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 33, 39–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2016.11.002.CrossRef

García-Blanco, A., López-Soler, C., Vento, M., García-Blanco, M. C., Gago, B., & Perea, M. (2017b). Communication deficits and avoidance of angry faces in children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 62, 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2017.02.002.CrossRefPubMed

Ghosn, F., Perea, M., Castelló, J., Vázquez, M., Yáñez, N., Marcos, I., Sahuquillo, R., Vento, M., & García-Blanco, A. (2019). Attentional patterns to emotional faces Versus scenes in children with Autism Spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(4), 1484–1492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3847-8.CrossRefPubMed

Goldberg, M. C., Lasker, A. G., Zee, D. S., Garth, E., Tien, A., & Landa, R. J. (2002). Deficits in the initiation of eye movements in the absence of a visual target in adolescents with high functioning autism. Neuropsychologia, 40(12), 2039–2049. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00059-3.CrossRefPubMed

Guillon, Q., Hadjikhani, N., Baduel, S., & Rogé, B. (2014). Visual social attention in autism spectrum disorder: Insights from eye tracking studies. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews (Vol. 42, pp. 279–297). Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.03.013CrossRef

Hare, T. A., Tottenham, N., Davidson, M. C., Glover, G. H., & Casey, B. J. (2005). Contributions of amygdala and striatal activity in emotion regulation. Biological Psychiatry, 57(6), 624–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.12.038.CrossRefPubMed

Hill, E. L. (2004). Executive dysfunction in autism. Trends in cognitive sciences (Vol. 8, pp. 26–32). Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2003.11.003CrossRef

Hollocks, M. J., Ozsivadjian, A., Matthews, C. E., Howlin, P., & Simonoff, E. (2013). The relationship between attentional bias and anxiety in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Autism Research, 6(4), 237–247. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1285.CrossRefPubMed

Hutton, S. B., & Ettinger, U. (2006). The antisaccade task as a research tool in psychopathology: A critical review. Psychophysiology, 43(3), 302–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00403.x.CrossRefPubMed

Isomura, T., Ogawa, S., Yamada, S., Shibasaki, M., & Masataka, N. (2014). Preliminary evidence that different mechanisms underlie the anger superiority effect in children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 461. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00461CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kaufman, A. S. (1997). K-BIT. Test Breve De Inteligencia De Kaufman [Kaufman brief IntelligenceTest (K-BIT)]. TEA.

Keehn, B., Müller, R. A., & Townsend, J. (2013). Atypical attentional networks and the emergence of autism. In Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(2), 164–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.11.014CrossRef

Kleinhans, N. M., Richards, T., Weaver, K., Johnson, L. C., Greenson, J., Dawson, G., & Aylward, E. (2010). Association between amygdala response to emotional faces and social anxiety in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia, 48(12), 3665–3670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.07.022.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Liang, J., & Wilkinson, K. (2018). Gaze toward naturalistic social scenes by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Implications for augmentative and alternative communication designs. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 61(5), 1157–1170. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-17-0331.CrossRef

Lopez, B. R., Lincoln, A. J., Ozonoff, S., & Lai, Z. (2005). Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of autistic disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(4), 445–460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-005-5035-x.CrossRefPubMed

Luna, B., Doll, S. K., Hegedus, S. J., Minshew, N. J., & Sweeney, J. A. (2007). Maturation of executive function in Autism. Biological Psychiatry, 61(4), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.02.030.CrossRefPubMed

Manoach, D. S., Lindgren, K. A., & Manoach, D. S. (2004). Deficient saccadic inhibition in Asperger’s disorder and the social-emotional processing disorder. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 75, 1719–1726. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2003.025981.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Markram, H. (2007). The intense world syndrome—an alternative hypothesis for autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1(1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.01.1.1.006.2007CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Markram, K., & Markram, H. (2010). The intense world theory—A unifying theory of the neurobiology of autism. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00224CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Matsuda, S., Minagawa, Y., & Yamamoto, J. (2015). Gaze behavior of children with ASD toward pictures of facial expressions. Autism Research and Treatment, 2015, 617190. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/617190CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Minshew, N. J., Luna, B., & Sweeney, J. A. (1999). Oculomotor evidence for neocortical systems but not cerebellar dysfunction in autism. Neurology, 52(5), 917–922. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.52.5.917.CrossRefPubMed

Mosconi, M. W., Kay, M., Seidenfeld, A., Guter, S., Stanford, L. D., & Sweeney, J. A. (2009). Impaired inhibitory control is associated with higher-order repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders. Cambridge Org. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291708004984.CrossRef

Mueller, S. C., Ng, P., Temple, V., Hardin, M. G., Pine, D. S., Leibenluft, E., & Ernst, M. (2010). Perturbed reward processing in pediatric bipolar disorder: An antisaccade study. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 24(12), 1779–1784. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881109353462.CrossRefPubMed

Norbury, C. F., Brock, J., Cragg, L., Einav, S., Griffiths, H., & Nation, K. (2009). Eye-movement patterns are associated with communicative competence in autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 50(7), 834–842. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02073.x.CrossRefPubMed

Posner, M. I., & Dehaene, S. (1994). Attentional networks. In Trends in Neurosciences (Vol. 17, Issue 2, pp. 75–79). Elsevier Current Trends. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-2236(94)90078-7.

Rogers, S. J. (2000). Diagnosis of autism before the age of 3. International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, 23, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0074-7750(00)80004-x.CrossRef

Sacrey, L. A. R., Armstrong, V. L., Bryson, S. E., & Zwaigenbaum, L. (2014). Impairments to visual disengagement in autism spectrum disorder: A review of experimental studies from infancy to adulthood. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews (Vol. 47, pp. 559–577). Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.011CrossRef

Schulz, K. P., Fan, J., Magidina, O., Marks, D. J., Hahn, B., & Halperin, J. M. (2007). Does the emotional go/no-go task really measure behavioral inhibition? Convergence with measures on a non-emotional analog. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 22, 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acn.2006.12.001.CrossRefPubMed

Smith, A. (2009). The empathy imbalance hypothesis of autism: A theoretical approach to cognitive and emotional empathy in autistic development. Psychological Record, 59(3), 489–510. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395675.CrossRef

South, M., Ozonoff, S., & Mcmahon, W. M. (2007). The relationship between executive functioning, central coherence, and repetitive behaviors in the high-functioning autism spectrum. Autism, 11(5), 437–451. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307079606.CrossRefPubMed

Théoret, H., Haque, J., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2001). Increased variability of paced finger tapping accuracy following repetitive magnetic stimulation of the cerebellum in humans. Neuroscience Letters, 306(1–2), 29–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(01)01860-2.CrossRefPubMed

Uono, S., Sato, W., & Toichi, M. (2009). Dynamic fearful gaze does not enhance attention orienting in individuals with Asperger’s disorder. Brain and Cognition, 71(3), 229–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2009.08.015CrossRefPubMed

Wagner, J. B., Hirsch, S. B., Vogel-Farley, V. K., Redcay, E., & Nelson, C. A. (2013). Eye-tracking, autonomic, and electrophysiological correlates of emotional face processing in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(1), 188–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1565-1.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Waters, A. M., Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., & Pine, D. S. (2008). Attentional bias for emotional faces in children with generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(4), 435–442. https://doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181642992.CrossRefPubMed

Wieckowski, A. T., & White, S. W. (2017). Eye-Gaze Analysis of Facial Emotion Recognition and expression in adolescents with ASD. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 46(1), 110–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1204924.CrossRefPubMed

Yiend, J. (2010). The effects of emotion on attention: A review of attentional processing of emotional information. Cognition and Emotion, 24(1), 3–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930903205698.CrossRef

Zhao, X., Zhang, P., Fu, L., & Maes, J. H. R. (2016). Attentional biases to faces expressing disgust in children with autism spectrum disorders: An exploratory study. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 19381. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep19381CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Titel: Emotional Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Condition: A Study of Attentional Orienting and Inhibitory Control
Auteurs: Rosa Sahuquillo-Leal
Manuel Perea
Alba Moreno-Giménez
Ladislao Salmerón
Julia Andreu
Diana Pons
Máximo Vento
Ana García-Blanco
Publicatiedatum: 18-01-2024
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 2/2025
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-023-06200-6

Andere artikelen Uitgave 2/2025

What is a Good Mother of Children with Autism? A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the U.S. and Japan

Original Article

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Blatant and Subtle Dehumanization of Autistic People

Original Article

Examining the Efficacy of Culturally Responsive Interventions for Autistic Children and Their Families: A Meta-Analysis

Original Paper

Attitudes Toward and Usage of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices for Autistic Youth in Bangladesh and Germany: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Open Access
Original Article

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Times of COVID-19: Examining Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Parental Well-Being, and Resilience

Open Access
Brief Communication

Visual Attention in Joint Attention Bids: A Comparison Between Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Toddlers

Open Access
Original Article

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Welkom bij Scalda & Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Registreer

Login

Emotional Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Condition: A Study of Attentional Orienting and Inhibitory Control

Abstract

Andere artikelen Uitgave 2/2025

What is a Good Mother of Children with Autism? A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the U.S. and Japan

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Blatant and Subtle Dehumanization of Autistic People

Examining the Efficacy of Culturally Responsive Interventions for Autistic Children and Their Families: A Meta-Analysis

Attitudes Toward and Usage of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices for Autistic Youth in Bangladesh and Germany: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Times of COVID-19: Examining Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Parental Well-Being, and Resilience

Visual Attention in Joint Attention Bids: A Comparison Between Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Toddlers

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Welkom bij Scalda & Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Registreer

Login

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Log in om toegang te krijgen

What is a Good Mother of Children with Autism? A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the U.S. and Japan

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Blatant and Subtle Dehumanization of Autistic People

Examining the Efficacy of Culturally Responsive Interventions for Autistic Children and Their Families: A Meta-Analysis

Attitudes Toward and Usage of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices for Autistic Youth in Bangladesh and Germany: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Times of COVID-19: Examining Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Parental Well-Being, and Resilience

Visual Attention in Joint Attention Bids: A Comparison Between Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Toddlers