Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Autism Res. 2018 Jun;11(6):942-955. doi: 10.1002/aur.1948. Epub 2018 Apr 10.
Many factors contribute to social difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of the present work was to determine whether atypicalities in how individuals with ASD process static, socially engaging faces persist when nonrigid facial motion cues are present. We also sought to explore the relationships between various face processing abilities and individual differences in autism symptom severity and traits such as empathy. Participants included 16 adults with ASD without intellectual impairment and 16 sex- and age-matched controls. Mean Verbal IQ was comparable across groups [t(30) = 0.70, P = 0.49]. The two groups responded similarly to many of the experimental manipulations; however, relative to controls, participants with ASD responded more slowly to dynamic expressive faces, even when no judgment was required; were less accurate at identity matching with static and dynamic faces; and needed more time to make identity and expression judgments [F(1, 30) ≥ 6.37, P ≤ 0.017, η ≥ 0.175 in all cases], particularly when the faces were moving [F(1, 30) = 3.40, P = 0.072, η = 0.104]. In the full sample, as social autistic traits increased and empathic skills declined, participants needed more time to judge static identity, and static or dynamic expressions [0.43 < |r | < 0.56]. The results suggest that adults with ASD show general impairments in face and motion processing and support the view that an examination of individual variation in particular personality traits and abilities is important for advancing our understanding of face perception. Autism Res 2018, 11: 942-955. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Our findings suggest that people with ASD have problems processing expressive faces, especially when seen in motion. It is important to learn who is most at risk for face processing problems, given that in the general population such problems appear to be linked to impaired social skills and empathy. By studying relationships between different abilities and traits, we may be able to find better ways to diagnose and support all people on the autism spectrum.
许多因素导致自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体在社交方面存在困难。本研究的目的是确定当存在非刚性面部运动线索时，ASD 个体处理静态、社交相关面部的异常是否仍然存在。我们还试图探索各种面部处理能力与自闭症症状严重程度以及同理心等个体差异之间的关系。参与者包括 16 名无智力障碍的 ASD 成人和 16 名性别和年龄匹配的对照组。两组的平均言语智商相当 [t(30)=0.70, P=0.49]。两组对许多实验操作的反应相似；然而，与对照组相比，ASD 组对动态表情面孔的反应更慢，即使不需要判断；在静态和动态面孔的身份匹配上准确性较低；并且需要更多的时间来进行身份和表情判断 [F(1, 30)≥6.37, P≤0.017, η≥0.175 在所有情况下]，尤其是当面孔移动时 [F(1, 30)=3.40, P=0.072, η=0.104]。在全样本中，随着社交自闭症特质的增加和同理心技能的下降，参与者需要更多的时间来判断静态身份，以及静态或动态表情 [0.43<|r|<0.56]。结果表明，ASD 成人在面孔和运动处理方面存在普遍障碍，并支持这样一种观点，即检查特定人格特质和能力的个体差异对于深入了解面孔感知非常重要。自闭症研究 2018, 11: 942-955. © 2018 国际自闭症研究协会，威利父子出版公司
