Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Aoba-6-3 Aramaki, Aoba Ward, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan.
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba Ward, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 May;53(5):1963-1973. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05478-2. Epub 2022 Feb 18.
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show abnormal face perception and emotion recognition. However, it remains largely unknown whether these differences are associated with abnormal physiological responses when viewing faces. In this study, we employed a sensitive emotion judgment task and conducted a detailed investigation of pupil dilation/constriction and oscillation in high-functioning adult participants with ASD and matched controls. We found that participants with ASD showed normal pupil constriction to faces; however, they demonstrated reduced pupil oscillation, which was independent of stimulus properties and participants' perception of the emotion. Together, our results have revealed an abnormal physiological response to faces in people with ASD, which may in turn be associated with impaired face perception previously found in many studies.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者表现出异常的面孔感知和情绪识别能力。然而，目前尚不清楚这些差异是否与观看面孔时异常的生理反应有关。在这项研究中，我们采用了一种敏感的情绪判断任务，对高功能成年 ASD 患者和匹配对照组进行了详细的瞳孔扩张/收缩和振荡研究。我们发现，ASD 患者的瞳孔对面孔有正常的收缩反应；然而，他们表现出的瞳孔振荡减少，这与刺激特性和参与者对情绪的感知无关。总之，我们的研究结果揭示了 ASD 患者对面孔的异常生理反应，这可能与许多研究中发现的受损的面孔感知有关。
