Fridenson-Hayo Shimrit, Berggren Steve, Lassalle Amandine, Tal Shahar, Pigat Delia, Bölte Sven, Baron-Cohen Simon, Golan Ofer
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden ; Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mol Autism. 2016 Dec 19;7:52. doi: 10.1186/s13229-016-0113-9. eCollection 2016.
Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have emotion recognition deficits when tested in different expression modalities (face, voice, body). However, these findings usually focus on basic emotions, using one or two expression modalities. In addition, cultural similarities and differences in emotion recognition patterns in children with ASC have not been explored before. The current study examined the similarities and differences in the recognition of basic and complex emotions by children with ASC and typically developing (TD) controls across three cultures: Israel, Britain, and Sweden.
Fifty-five children with high-functioning ASC, aged 5-9, were compared to 58 TD children. On each site, groups were matched on age, sex, and IQ. Children were tested using four tasks, examining recognition of basic and complex emotions from voice recordings, videos of facial and bodily expressions, and emotional video scenarios including all modalities in context.
Compared to their TD peers, children with ASC showed emotion recognition deficits in both basic and complex emotions on all three modalities and their integration in context. Complex emotions were harder to recognize, compared to basic emotions for the entire sample. Cross-cultural agreement was found for all major findings, with minor deviations on the face and body tasks.
Our findings highlight the multimodal nature of ER deficits in ASC, which exist for basic as well as complex emotions and are relatively stable cross-culturally. Cross-cultural research has the potential to reveal both autism-specific universal deficits and the role that specific cultures play in the way empathy operates in different countries.
患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASC）的儿童在接受不同表达方式（面部、声音、身体）测试时存在情绪识别缺陷。然而，这些研究结果通常聚焦于基本情绪，且仅使用一两种表达方式。此外，此前尚未探讨过患有ASC的儿童在情绪识别模式上的文化异同。本研究考察了患有ASC的儿童与发育正常（TD）的对照组儿童在以色列、英国和瑞典这三种文化中对基本情绪和复杂情绪的识别异同。
将55名年龄在5至9岁的高功能ASC儿童与58名TD儿童进行比较。在每个研究地点，两组在年龄、性别和智商上进行匹配。使用四项任务对儿童进行测试，这些任务考察了从语音记录、面部和身体表情视频以及包含所有表达方式的情境化情绪视频场景中识别基本情绪和复杂情绪的能力。
与他们的TD同龄人相比，患有ASC的儿童在所有三种表达方式及其情境整合方面，在基本情绪和复杂情绪的识别上均表现出缺陷。与整个样本的基本情绪相比，复杂情绪更难识别。所有主要研究结果都达成了跨文化共识，在面部和身体任务上存在细微偏差。
我们的研究结果凸显了ASC中情绪识别缺陷的多模态性质，这种缺陷在基本情绪和复杂情绪中均存在，并且在跨文化中相对稳定。跨文化研究有可能揭示自闭症特有的普遍缺陷以及特定文化在不同国家同理心运作方式中所起的作用。
