Heidelberg University, Germany.
Autism. 2024 Jul;28(7):1690-1702. doi: 10.1177/13623613231203306. Epub 2023 Oct 26.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing face masks became mandatory to prevent the spread of the virus. However, they restrict the ability to recognize emotions to the upper part of the face. Since individuals with autism spectrum condition often tend to look at the lower half of the face, they may be particularly restricted in emotion recognition by people wearing masks, since they are now forced to look at the upper half of the face. The current study compared the recognition of facially expressed emotions between individuals with and without autism spectrum condition. Each photo was shown in three types, once uncovered, once with face mask, and once with sunglasses. Our results revealed a reduction in accuracy of individuals with autism spectrum condition at recognizing emotions in all three stimulus types and exhibited more difficulties distinguishing anger, fear, pride, and embarrassment. During the emotion recognition task, there was no difference in which facial areas the groups looked at. We did not find evidence that the disadvantages of individuals with autism spectrum condition in emotion recognition were due to looking at different areas of the face.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，佩戴口罩成为预防病毒传播的强制性措施。然而，口罩限制了人们对上半张脸表情的识别能力。由于自闭症谱系障碍患者通常倾向于看下半张脸，因此他们可能会特别受到戴口罩的人的情绪识别限制，因为他们现在被迫看上半张脸。本研究比较了自闭症谱系障碍患者和非自闭症谱系障碍患者对面部表情的识别能力。每张照片都以三种类型展示，一次是未遮盖的，一次是戴口罩的，一次是戴太阳镜的。我们的结果显示，自闭症谱系障碍患者在识别所有三种刺激类型的情绪时准确性都有所降低，并且更难以区分愤怒、恐惧、自豪和尴尬。在进行情绪识别任务时，两组人注视的面部区域没有差异。我们没有发现证据表明，自闭症谱系障碍患者在情绪识别方面的劣势是由于他们看不同的面部区域造成的。
