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Deficits in facial, body movement and vocal emotional processing in autism spectrum disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2010

R. C. M. Philip ,
H. C. Whalley ,
A. C. Stanfield ,
R. Sprengelmeyer ,
I. M. Santos ,
A. W. Young ,
A. P. Atkinson ,
A. J. Calder ,
E. C. Johnstone  and
S. M. Lawrie
...Show all authors
R. C. M. Philip*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
H. C. Whalley
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
A. C. Stanfield
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
R. Sprengelmeyer
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, UK
I. M. Santos
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Sciences, University of Aveiro, Portugal
A. W. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of York, UK
A. P. Atkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Durham, UK
A. J. Calder
Affiliation:
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK
E. C. Johnstone
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
S. M. Lawrie
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
J. Hall
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr R. C. M. Philip, Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, EdinburghEH10 5HF, UK. (Email: r.c.m.philip@ed.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Background

Previous behavioural and neuroimaging studies of emotion processing in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have focused on the use of facial stimuli. To date, however, no studies have examined emotion processing in autism across a broad range of social signals.

Method

This study addressed this issue by investigating emotion processing in a group of 23 adults with ASD and 23 age- and gender-matched controls. Recognition of basic emotions (‘happiness’, ‘sadness’, ‘anger’, disgust' and ‘fear’) was assessed from facial, body movement and vocal stimuli. The ability to make social judgements (such as approachability) from facial stimuli was also investigated.

Results

Significant deficits in emotion recognition were found in the ASD group relative to the control group across all stimulus domains (faces, body movements and voices). These deficits were seen across a range of emotions. The ASD group were also impaired in making social judgements compared to the control group and this correlated with impairments in basic emotion recognition.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that there are significant and broad-ranging deficits in emotion processing in ASD present across a range of stimulus domains and in the auditory and visual modality; they cannot therefore be accounted for simply in terms of impairments in face processing or in the visual modality alone. These results identify a core deficit affecting the processing of a wide range of emotional information in ASD, which contributes to the impairments in social function seen in people with this condition.

Keywords

Autismemotionfacegesturevocal
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 11 , November 2010 , pp. 1919 - 1929
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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