Psychology, Bath Spa University, Newton Park, Newton St. Loe, Bath, UK.
Laterality. 2012;17(4):428-37. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2010.521751. Epub 2011 Jun 30.
A previous study by Workman, Chilvers, Yeomans, and Taylor (2006), using the "Universal" Chimeric Faces Task (UCFT) for six emotional expressions, demonstrated that an overall left hemispatial/right hemisphere (RH) advantage has begun to develop by the age of 7-8. Moreover, the development of this left hemispatial advantage was observed to correlate positively with the ability to read emotions in the faces of others. Adopting the UCFT, the current study compared autistic children (11-15) with unimpaired children of two age groups (5-6 and 7-8) from this previous study. The autistic children showed a left hemispatial/RH advantage only for the two emotional expressions of "happiness" and "anger". Results for the autistic children revealed a similar overall pattern of lateralisation to the 5-6-year-olds and one that is less lateralised than the pattern for the 7-8-year-olds. Autistic children appear to show a developmental deficit for left hemispatial/RH advantage for emotional expression with the exception of "happiness" and "anger." The findings are discussed in terms of role hemisphericity and an approach-avoidance model.
一项先前由 Workman、Chilvers、Yeomans 和 Taylor（2006 年）进行的研究，使用“通用”嵌合面孔任务（UCFT）对六种情感表情进行了研究，表明左半空间/右半球（RH）的整体优势在 7-8 岁时已经开始发展。此外，这种左半空间优势的发展与阅读他人面部表情的能力呈正相关。采用 UCFT，本研究比较了自闭症儿童（11-15 岁）与来自之前研究的两个年龄组（5-6 岁和 7-8 岁）的未受损儿童。自闭症儿童仅在“快乐”和“愤怒”这两种情绪表达上表现出左半空间/RH 优势。自闭症儿童的结果显示出与 5-6 岁儿童相似的总体侧化模式，并且比 7-8 岁儿童的模式侧化程度更低。自闭症儿童在情绪表达方面似乎表现出左半空间/RH 优势的发育缺陷，除了“快乐”和“愤怒”。研究结果从半球角色和接近-回避模型的角度进行了讨论。
