Oberman Lindsay M, Winkielman Piotr, Ramachandran Vilayanur S
Center for Brain and Cognition, UC San Diego, USA.
Dev Sci. 2009 Jul;12(4):510-20. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00796.x.
Spontaneous mimicry, including that of emotional facial expressions, is important for socio-emotional skills such as empathy and communication. Those skills are often impacted in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Successful mimicry requires not only the activation of the response, but also its appropriate speed. Yet, previous studies examined ASD differences in only response magnitude. The current study investigated timing and magnitude of spontaneous and voluntary mimicry in ASD children and matched controls using facial electromyography (EMG). First, participants viewed and recognized happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust and neutral expressions presented at different durations. Later, participants voluntarily mimicked the expressions. There were no group differences on emotion recognition and amplitude of expression-appropriate EMG activity. However, ASD participants' spontaneous, but not voluntary, mimicry activity was delayed by about 160 ms. This delay occurred across different expressions and presentation durations. We relate these findings to the literature on mirroring and temporal dynamics of social interaction.
自发模仿，包括对情绪性面部表情的模仿，对于诸如共情和沟通等社会情感技能而言至关重要。这些技能在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中常常受到影响。成功的模仿不仅需要反应的激活，还需要其适当的速度。然而，先前的研究仅考察了ASD在反应幅度上的差异。本研究使用面部肌电图（EMG）调查了ASD儿童和匹配对照组中自发模仿和自主模仿的时间和幅度。首先，参与者观看并识别以不同持续时间呈现的快乐、悲伤、恐惧、愤怒、厌恶和中性表情。随后，参与者自主模仿这些表情。在情绪识别和表情适当的肌电活动幅度方面，两组之间没有差异。然而，ASD参与者的自发模仿活动（而非自主模仿活动）延迟了约160毫秒。这种延迟在不同表情和呈现持续时间中均会出现。我们将这些发现与关于社会互动的镜像和时间动态的文献联系起来。
