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Morina E, Harris DA, Hayes-Skelton SA, Ciaramitaro VM. Altered mechanisms of adaptation in social anxiety: differences in adapting to positive versus negative emotional faces. Cogn Emot 2024; 38:727-747. [PMID: 38427396 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2314987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Social anxiety is characterised by fear of negative evaluation and negative perceptual biases; however, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these negative biases are not well understood. We investigated a possible mechanism which could maintain negative biases: altered adaptation to emotional faces. Heightened sensitivity to negative emotions could result from weakened adaptation to negative emotions, strengthened adaptation to positive emotions, or both mechanisms. We measured adaptation from repeated exposure to either positive or negative emotional faces, in individuals high versus low in social anxiety. We quantified adaptation strength by calculating the point of subjective equality (PSE) before and after adaptation for each participant. We hypothesised: (1) weaker adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety, (2) no difference in adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals low in social anxiety, and (3) no difference in adaptation to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety. Our results revealed a weaker adaptation to angry compared to happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 1), with no such difference in individuals low in social anxiety (Experiment 1), and no difference in adaptation strength to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 2).
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Affiliation(s)
- Erinda Morina
- Developmental and Brain Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel A Harris
- Developmental and Brain Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Sarah A Hayes-Skelton
- Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Vivian M Ciaramitaro
- Developmental and Brain Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
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2
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Minemoto K, Ueda Y. Face identity and facial expression representations with adaptation paradigms: New directions for potential applications. Front Psychol 2022; 13:988497. [PMID: 36600709 PMCID: PMC9806277 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptation and aftereffect are well-known procedures for exploring our neural representation of visual stimuli. It has been reported that they occur in face identity, facial expressions, and low-level visual features. This method has two primary advantages. One is to reveal the common or shared process of faces, that is, the overlapped or discrete representation of face identities or facial expressions. The other is to investigate the coding system or theory of face processing that underlies the ability to recognize faces. This study aims to organize recent research to guide the reader into the field of face adaptation and its aftereffect and to suggest possible future expansions in the use of this paradigm. To achieve this, we reviewed the behavioral short-term aftereffect studies on face identity (i.e., who it is) and facial expressions (i.e., what expressions such as happiness and anger are expressed), and summarized their findings about the neural representation of faces. First, we summarize the basic characteristics of face aftereffects compared to simple visual features to clarify that facial aftereffects occur at a different stage and are not inherited or combinations of low-level visual features. Next, we introduce the norm-based coding hypothesis, which is one of the theories used to represent face identity and facial expressions, and adaptation is a commonly used procedure to examine this. Subsequently, we reviewed studies that applied this paradigm to immature or impaired face recognition (i.e., children and individuals with autism spectrum disorder or prosopagnosia) and examined the relationships between their poor recognition performance and representations. Moreover, we reviewed studies dealing with the representation of non-presented faces and social signals conveyed via faces and discussed that the face adaptation paradigm is also appropriate for these types of examinations. Finally, we summarize the research conducted to date and propose a new direction for the face adaptation paradigm.
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Hudac CM, Santhosh M, Celerian C, Chung KM, Jung W, Webb SJ. The Role of Racial and Developmental Experience on Emotional Adaptive Coding in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Dev Neuropsychol 2021; 46:93-108. [PMID: 33719788 DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2021.1900192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Sensitivity to emotional face aids in rapid detection and evaluation of others, such that by school-age, children and youth exhibit adult-like patterns when the prolonged viewing of an emotional face distorts the perception of a subsequent face. However, the developmental considerations of this phenomenon (known as emotional adaptive coding) are unclear given ongoing maturational and experiential changes, including the influence of own-race experiences or the lack of face expertise, as is evident in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study addressed whether emotional adaptive coding is sensitive to factors of face perception expertise, specifically self-race and developmental experience, in adults (age 19-28 years) and youth (age 10-16 years). Emotional adaptive coding was not influenced by race expertise (i.e., other versus same race identity) in White and Asian adults. Emotional adaptation coding during childhood and adolescence is consistent with adults, though youth with ASD exhibited stronger adaptor after-effects in response to other-race faces, relative to TD youth and adults. By extending prior work to examine the integration of race and emotional adaptive coding in ASD, we discovered that the strength of response in ASD is atypical when viewing other-race faces, which clarifies the role of racial and facial experience on emotional face adaption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin M Hudac
- Center for Youth Development and Intervention and Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States
| | - Megha Santhosh
- Center on Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, United States
| | - Casey Celerian
- Center on Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, United States
| | | | - Woohyun Jung
- Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea
| | - Sara Jane Webb
- Center on Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, United States.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
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Karaminis T, Arrighi R, Forth G, Burr D, Pellicano E. Adaptation to the Speed of Biological Motion in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2020; 50:373-385. [PMID: 31630295 PMCID: PMC6994433 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-04241-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Autistic individuals often present atypicalities in adaptation-the continuous recalibration of perceptual systems driven by recent sensory experiences. Here, we examined such atypicalities in human biological motion. We used a dual-task paradigm, including a running-speed discrimination task ('comparing the speed of two running silhouettes') and a change-detection task ('detecting fixation-point shrinkages') assessing attention. We tested 19 school-age autistic and 19 age- and ability-matched typical participants, also recording eye-movements. The two groups presented comparable speed-discrimination abilities and, unexpectedly, comparable adaptation. Accuracy in the change-detection task and the scatter of eye-fixations around the fixation point were also similar across groups. Yet, the scatter of fixations reliably predicted the magnitude of adaptation, demonstrating the importance of controlling for attention in adaptation studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Themis Karaminis
- Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, St Helens Rd, Ormskirk, L39 4QP, UK. .,Centre for Research in Autism and Education, UCL, London, UK.
| | - Roberto Arrighi
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139, Florence, Italy.,Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council (CNR), Pisa, Italy
| | - Georgia Forth
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK.,Centre for Research in Autism and Education, UCL, London, UK
| | - David Burr
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139, Florence, Italy.,Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council (CNR), Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, 56125, Pisa, Italy
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, Building X5B, Wally's Walk, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.,Centre for Research in Autism and Education, UCL, London, UK
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5
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Halovic S, Kroos C, Stevens C. Adaptation aftereffects influence the perception of specific emotions from walking gait. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2020; 204:103026. [PMID: 32087419 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2019] [Revised: 02/03/2020] [Accepted: 02/03/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the existence and nature of adaptation aftereffects on the visual perception of basic emotions displayed through walking gait. Stimuli were previously validated gender-ambiguous point-light walker models displaying various basic emotions (happy, sad, anger and fear). Results indicated that both facilitative and inhibitive aftereffects influenced the perception of all displayed emotions. Facilitative aftereffects were found between theoretically opposite emotions (i.e. happy/sad and anger/fear). Evidence suggested that low-level and high-level visual processes contributed to both stimulus aftereffect and conceptual aftereffect mechanisms. Significant aftereffects were more frequently evident for the time required to identify the displayed emotion than for emotion identification rates. The perception of basic emotions from walking gait is influenced by a number of different perceptual mechanisms which shift the categorical boundaries of each emotion as a result of perceptual experience.
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Schauder KB, Park WJ, Tsank Y, Eckstein MP, Tadin D, Bennetto L. Initial eye gaze to faces and its functional consequence on face identification abilities in autism spectrum disorder. J Neurodev Disord 2019; 11:42. [PMID: 31883518 PMCID: PMC6935487 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-019-9303-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined and diagnosed by core deficits in social communication and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors. Research on face processing suggests deficits in this domain in ASD but includes many mixed findings regarding the nature and extent of these differences. The first eye movement to a face has been shown to be highly informative and sufficient to achieve high performance in face identification in neurotypical adults. The current study focused on this critical moment shown to be essential in the process of face identification. METHODS We applied an established eye-tracking and face identification paradigm to comprehensively characterize the initial eye movement to a face and test its functional consequence on face identification performance in adolescents with and without ASD (n = 21 per group), and in neurotypical adults. Specifically, we presented a series of faces and measured the landing location of the first saccade to each face, while simultaneously measuring their face identification abilities. Then, individuals were guided to look at specific locations on the face, and we measured how face identification performance varied as a function of that location. Adolescent participants also completed a more traditional measure of face identification which allowed us to more fully characterize face identification abilities in ASD. RESULTS Our results indicate that the location of the initial look to faces and face identification performance for briefly presented faces are intact in ASD, ruling out the possibility that deficits in face perception, at least in adolescents with ASD, begin with the initial eye movement to the face. However, individuals with ASD showed impairments on the more traditional measure of face identification. CONCLUSION Together, the observed dissociation between initial, rapid face perception processes, and other measures of face perception offers new insights and hypotheses related to the timing and perceptual complexity of face processing and how these specific aspects of face identification may be disrupted in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly B. Schauder
- Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, P.O Box 270266, Rochester, NY 14627 USA
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, USA
- Children’s National Medical Center, Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, 15245 Shady Grove Road Suite 350, Rockville, MD 20850 USA
| | - Woon Ju Park
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Guthrie Hall Box 351525, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
| | - Yuliy Tsank
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660 USA
| | - Miguel P. Eckstein
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660 USA
| | - Duje Tadin
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, 310 Meliora Hall, P.O Box 270268, Rochester, NY 14627-0268 USA
- Departments of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, USA
| | - Loisa Bennetto
- Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, P.O Box 270266, Rochester, NY 14627 USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, 310 Meliora Hall, P.O Box 270268, Rochester, NY 14627-0268 USA
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7
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Jon O, Walsh JA, Benarroch MF, Wade T, Lipman C, Greenberg E, Rutherford M. Disambiguating auditory information causes priming, but not aftereffects, in the perception of ambiguous faces. Vision Res 2018; 146-147:1-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2017.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2017] [Revised: 10/02/2017] [Accepted: 10/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Abstract
It has been suggested that attenuated adaptation to visual stimuli in autism is the result of atypical perceptual priors (e.g., Pellicano and Burr in Trends Cogn Sci 16(10):504-510, 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.009 ). This study investigated adaptation to color in autistic adults, measuring both strength of afterimage and the influence of top-down knowledge. We found no difference in color afterimage strength between autistic and typical adults. Effects of top-down knowledge on afterimage intensity shown by Lupyan (Acta Psychol 161:117-130, 2015. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.08.006 ) were not replicated for either group. This study finds intact color adaptation in autistic adults. This is in contrast to findings of attenuated adaptation to faces and numerosity in autistic children. Future research should investigate the possibility of developmental differences in adaptation and further examine top-down effects on adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Maule
- The Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Pevensey II 5B7, Brighton, BN1 9QH UK
| | - Kirstie Stanworth
- The Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Pevensey II 5B7, Brighton, BN1 9QH UK
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
| | - Anna Franklin
- The Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Pevensey II 5B7, Brighton, BN1 9QH UK
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9
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Black MH, Chen NT, Iyer KK, Lipp OV, Bölte S, Falkmer M, Tan T, Girdler S. Mechanisms of facial emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorders: Insights from eye tracking and electroencephalography. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2017; 80:488-515. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2016] [Revised: 05/07/2017] [Accepted: 06/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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10
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Rhodes G, Burton N, Jeffery L, Read A, Taylor L, Ewing L. Facial expression coding in children and adolescents with autism: Reduced adaptability but intact norm-based coding. Br J Psychol 2017; 109:204-218. [DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2017] [Revised: 06/06/2017] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Gillian Rhodes
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
| | - Nichola Burton
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
| | - Linda Jeffery
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
| | - Ainsley Read
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
| | - Libby Taylor
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
| | - Louise Ewing
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; School of Psychology; University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia Australia
- School of Psychology; University of East Anglia; Norwich Norfolk UK
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11
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Adaptation of social and non-social cues to direction in adults with autism spectrum disorder and neurotypical adults with autistic traits. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2017; 29:108-116. [PMID: 28602448 PMCID: PMC6053619 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2017.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2016] [Revised: 04/26/2017] [Accepted: 05/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual constancy strongly relies on adaptive gain control mechanisms, which shift perception as a function of recent sensory history. Here we examined the extent to which individual differences in magnitude of adaptation aftereffects for social and non-social directional cues are related to autistic traits and sensory sensitivity in healthy participants (Experiment 1); and also whether adaptation for social and non-social directional cues is differentially impacted in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relative to neurotypical (NT) controls (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, individuals with lower susceptibility to adaptation aftereffects, i.e. more 'veridical' perception, showed higher levels of autistic traits across social and non-social stimuli. Furthermore, adaptation aftereffects were predictive of sensory sensitivity. In Experiment 2, only adaptation to eye-gaze was diminished in adults with ASD, and this was related to difficulties categorizing eye-gaze direction at baseline. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores negatively predicted lower adaptation for social (head and eye-gaze direction) but not non-social (chair) stimuli. These results suggest that the relationship between adaptation and the broad socio-cognitive processing style captured by 'autistic traits' may be relatively domain-general, but in adults with ASD diminished adaptation is only apparent where processing is most severely impacted, such as the perception of social attention cues.
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12
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Maule J, Stanworth K, Pellicano E, Franklin A. Ensemble perception of color in autistic adults. Autism Res 2017; 10:839-851. [PMID: 27874263 PMCID: PMC5484362 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2016] [Revised: 10/20/2016] [Accepted: 10/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Dominant accounts of visual processing in autism posit that autistic individuals have an enhanced access to details of scenes [e.g., weak central coherence] which is reflected in a general bias toward local processing. Furthermore, the attenuated priors account of autism predicts that the updating and use of summary representations is reduced in autism. Ensemble perception describes the extraction of global summary statistics of a visual feature from a heterogeneous set (e.g., of faces, sizes, colors), often in the absence of local item representation. The present study investigated ensemble perception in autistic adults using a rapidly presented (500 msec) ensemble of four, eight, or sixteen elements representing four different colors. We predicted that autistic individuals would be less accurate when averaging the ensembles, but more accurate in recognizing individual ensemble colors. The results were consistent with the predictions. Averaging was impaired in autism, but only when ensembles contained four elements. Ensembles of eight or sixteen elements were averaged equally accurately across groups. The autistic group also showed a corresponding advantage in rejecting colors that were not originally seen in the ensemble. The results demonstrate the local processing bias in autism, but also suggest that the global perceptual averaging mechanism may be compromised under some conditions. The theoretical implications of the findings and future avenues for research on summary statistics in autism are discussed. Autism Res 2017, 10: 839-851. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Maule
- Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, Pevensey 1, North‐South RoadUniversity of SussexBrightonBN1 9QHUK
| | - Kirstie Stanworth
- Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, Pevensey 1, North‐South RoadUniversity of SussexBrightonBN1 9QHUK
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- UCL Institute of EducationUniversity College London55‐59 Gordon SquareWC1H 0NULondon
| | - Anna Franklin
- Sussex Colour Group, School of Psychology, Pevensey 1, North‐South RoadUniversity of SussexBrightonBN1 9QHUK
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13
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Luo C, Burns E, Xu H. Association between autistic traits and emotion adaptation to partially occluded faces. Vision Res 2017; 133:21-36. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2016.12.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2016] [Revised: 12/20/2016] [Accepted: 12/23/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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Walsh JA, Creighton SE, Rutherford MD. Emotion Perception or Social Cognitive Complexity: What Drives Face Processing Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder? J Autism Dev Disord 2016; 46:615-23. [PMID: 26439480 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2606-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Some, but not all, relevant studies have revealed face processing deficits among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In particular, deficits are revealed in face processing tasks that involve emotion perception. The current study examined whether either deficits in processing emotional expression or deficits in processing social cognitive complexity drive face processing deficits in ASD. We tested adults with and without ASD on a battery of face processing tasks that varied with respect to emotional expression processing and social cognitive complexity. Results revealed significant group differences on tasks involving emotional expression processing, but typical performance on a non-emotional but socially complex task. These results support an emotion processing rather than a social complexity explanation for face processing deficits in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A Walsh
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
| | - Sarah E Creighton
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - M D Rutherford
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
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15
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Manning C, Kilner J, Neil L, Karaminis T, Pellicano E. Children on the autism spectrum update their behaviour in response to a volatile environment. Dev Sci 2016; 20. [PMID: 27496590 PMCID: PMC5600083 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2015] [Accepted: 03/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Typical adults can track reward probabilities across trials to estimate the volatility of the environment and use this information to modify their learning rate (Behrens et al., 2007). In a stable environment, it is advantageous to take account of outcomes over many trials, whereas in a volatile environment, recent experience should be more strongly weighted than distant experience. Recent predictive coding accounts of autism propose that autistic individuals will demonstrate atypical updating of their behaviour in response to the statistics of the reward environment. To rigorously test this hypothesis, we administered a developmentally appropriate version of Behrens et al.'s (2007) task to 34 cognitively able children on the autism spectrum aged between 6 and 14 years, 32 age- and ability-matched typically developing children and 19 typical adults. Participants were required to choose between a green and a blue pirate chest, each associated with a randomly determined reward value between 0 and 100 points, with a combined total of 100 points. On each trial, the reward was given for one stimulus only. In the stable condition, the ratio of the blue or green response being rewarded was fixed at 75:25. In the volatile condition, the ratio alternated between 80:20 and 20:80 every 20 trials. We estimated the learning rate for each participant by fitting a delta rule model and compared this rate across conditions and groups. All groups increased their learning rate in the volatile condition compared to the stable condition. Unexpectedly, there was no effect of group and no interaction between group and condition. Thus, autistic children used information about the statistics of the reward environment to guide their decisions to a similar extent as typically developing children and adults. These results help constrain predictive coding accounts of autism by demonstrating that autism is not characterized by uniform differences in the weighting of prediction error.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - James Kilner
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK
| | - Louise Neil
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK
| | - Themelis Karaminis
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK.,School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been associated with facial affect recognition (FAR) alterations. METHODS This study examined accuracy and response times for general and specific FAR in whole face and eye-region stimuli. FAR was assessed in matched samples of children and adolescents with ASD (n = 35), ADHD (n = 32), and typical development (TD) (n = 32) aged 8.6-15.9 years (M = 11.6; SD = 2.0). RESULTS Compared to TD, the ASD group performed less accurate and showed longer response times for general and specific FAR, mostly driven by problems in neutral and happy face identification. The ADHD group responded faster than the ASD group for global FAR. No differences between ADHD and TD were found. Attentional distractibility had a significant effect on FAR performance in ASD and ADHD. CONCLUSIONS Findings confirm FAR alterations in ASD, but not ADHD, and endorse effects of attentional distractibility on FAR in ASD and ADHD. FAR and attention function training is clinically meaningful in ASD. Future studies should include control for visual attention and facial configuration skills, use naturalistic FAR material and also investigate implicit FAR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steve Berggren
- a Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Paediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health , Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.,b Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Stockholm, Center for Psychiatry Research , Stockholm County Council , Stockholm , Sweden
| | | | - Sven Bölte
- a Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Paediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health , Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.,b Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Stockholm, Center for Psychiatry Research , Stockholm County Council , Stockholm , Sweden
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17
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Walsh JA, Vida MD, Morrisey MN, Rutherford MD. Adults with autism spectrum disorder show evidence of figural aftereffects with male and female faces. Vision Res 2015; 115:104-12. [PMID: 26322382 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2014] [Revised: 08/25/2015] [Accepted: 08/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The norm-based coding model of face perception posits that face perception involves an implicit comparison of observed faces to a representation of an average face (prototype) that is shaped by experience. Using some methods, observers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown atypical face perception, but other methods suggest preserved face perception. Here, we used a figural aftereffects paradigm to test whether adults with ASD showed evidence of norm-based coding of faces, and whether they encode separate prototypes for male and female faces, as typical observers do. Following prolonged exposure to distorted faces that differ from their stored prototype, neurotypical adults show aftereffects: their prototype shifts in the direction of the adapting face. We measured aftereffects following adaptation to one distorted gender. There were no significant group differences in the size or direction of the aftereffects; both groups showed sex-selective aftereffects after adapting to expanded female faces but showed aftereffects for both sexes after adapting to contracted face of either sex, demonstrating that adults with and without ASD show evidence of partially dissociable male and female face prototypes. This is the first study to examine sex-selective prototypes using figural aftereffects in adults with ASD and replicates the findings of previous studies examining aftereffects in adults with ASD. The results contrast with studies reporting diminished adaptation in children with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A Walsh
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L8, Canada.
| | - Mark D Vida
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - Marcus Neil Morrisey
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - M D Rutherford
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L8, Canada
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Abstract
Autism is known to be associated with major perceptual atypicalities. We have recently proposed a general model to account for these atypicalities in Bayesian terms, suggesting that autistic individuals underuse predictive information or priors. We tested this idea by measuring adaptation to numerosity stimuli in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After exposure to large numbers of items, stimuli with fewer items appear to be less numerous (and vice versa). We found that children with ASD adapted much less to numerosity than typically developing children, although their precision for numerosity discrimination was similar to that of the typical group. This result reinforces recent findings showing reduced adaptation to facial identity in ASD and goes on to show that reduced adaptation is not unique to faces (social stimuli with special significance in autism), but occurs more generally, for both parietal and temporal functions, probably reflecting inefficiencies in the adaptive interpretation of sensory signals. These results provide strong support for the Bayesian theories of autism.
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Karaminis T, Turi M, Neil L, Badcock NA, Burr D, Pellicano E. Atypicalities in perceptual adaptation in autism do not extend to perceptual causality. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0120439. [PMID: 25774507 PMCID: PMC4361650 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2014] [Accepted: 01/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
A recent study showed that adaptation to causal events (collisions) in adults caused subsequent events to be less likely perceived as causal. In this study, we examined if a similar negative adaptation effect for perceptual causality occurs in children, both typically developing and with autism. Previous studies have reported diminished adaptation for face identity, facial configuration and gaze direction in children with autism. To test whether diminished adaptive coding extends beyond high-level social stimuli (such as faces) and could be a general property of autistic perception, we developed a child-friendly paradigm for adaptation of perceptual causality. We compared the performance of 22 children with autism with 22 typically developing children, individually matched on age and ability (IQ scores). We found significant and equally robust adaptation aftereffects for perceptual causality in both groups. There were also no differences between the two groups in their attention, as revealed by reaction times and accuracy in a change-detection task. These findings suggest that adaptation to perceptual causality in autism is largely similar to typical development and, further, that diminished adaptive coding might not be a general characteristic of autism at low levels of the perceptual hierarchy, constraining existing theories of adaptation in autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Themelis Karaminis
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Marco Turi
- Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Louise Neil
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Nicholas A. Badcock
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - David Burr
- Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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Norm-based coding of facial identity in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Vision Res 2015; 108:33-40. [PMID: 25576378 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2014.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2014] [Revised: 11/03/2014] [Accepted: 11/18/2014] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
It is unclear whether reported deficits in face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be explained by deficits in perceptual face coding mechanisms. In the current study, we examined whether adults with ASD showed evidence of norm-based opponent coding of facial identity, a perceptual process underlying the recognition of facial identity in typical adults. We began with an original face and an averaged face and then created an anti-face that differed from the averaged face in the opposite direction from the original face by a small amount (near adaptor) or a large amount (far adaptor). To test for norm-based coding, we adapted participants on different trials to the near versus far adaptor, then asked them to judge the identity of the averaged face. We varied the size of the test and adapting faces in order to reduce any contribution of low-level adaptation. Consistent with the predictions of norm-based coding, high functioning adults with ASD (n = 27) and matched typical participants (n = 28) showed identity aftereffects that were larger for the far than near adaptor. Unlike results with children with ASD, the strength of the aftereffects were similar in the two groups. This is the first study to demonstrate norm-based coding of facial identity in adults with ASD.
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Cook R, Brewer R, Shah P, Bird G. Intact facial adaptation in autistic adults. Autism Res 2014; 7:481-90. [PMID: 24757172 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2013] [Accepted: 03/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Adaptation paradigms seek to bias subsequently viewed stimuli through prolonged exposure to an adapting stimulus, thereby giving rise to an aftereffect. Recent experiments have found that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show reduced facial aftereffects, prompting some researchers to speculate that all individuals with ASD exhibit deficient facial adaptation. However, caution is required when generalizing findings from samples of children with ASD to the wider ASD population. The reduced facial aftereffects seen in child samples may instead reflect delayed or atypical developmental trajectories, whereby individuals with ASD are slower to develop adaptive mechanisms. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to determine whether high-functioning adults with ASD also show diminished aftereffects for facial identity and expression. In Experiment 1, using a procedure that minimized the contribution of low-level retinotopic adaptation, we observed substantial aftereffects comparable to those seen in matched controls, for both facial identity and expression. A similar pattern of results was seen in Experiment 2 using a revised procedure that increased the contribution of retinotopic adaptation to the facial aftereffects observed. That adults with autism can show robust facial aftereffects raises the possibility that group differences are seen only at particular points during development, and may not be a lifelong feature of the condition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Cook
- Department of Psychology, City University London, London, United Kingdom
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22
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Afterimage induced neural activity during emotional face perception. Brain Res 2014; 1549:11-21. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2013.12.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2013] [Revised: 11/15/2013] [Accepted: 12/18/2013] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Nuske HJ, Vivanti G, Dissanayake C. Are emotion impairments unique to, universal, or specific in autism spectrum disorder? A comprehensive review. Cogn Emot 2013; 27:1042-61. [PMID: 23387530 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2012.762900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
There is widespread belief that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are "emotionally detached" from others. This comprehensive review examines the empirical evidence for this assumption, addressing three critical questions: (1) Are emotion-processing impairments universal in ASD? (2) Are they specific, or can they be explained by deficits in other domains? (3) Is the emotion processing profile seen in ASD unique to these conditions? Upon review of the literature (over 200 studies), we conclude that: (1) emotion-processing impairments might not be universal in ASD, as suggested by variability across participants and across emotion-processing tasks; (2) emotion-processing impairments might not be specific to ASD, as domain-general processes appear to account for some of these impairments; and (3) the specific pattern of emotion-processing strengths and weaknesses observed in ASD, involving difficulties with processing social versus non-social, and complex versus simple emotional information (with impairments more consistently reported on implicit than explicit emotion-processing tasks), appears to be unique to ASD. The emotion-processing profile observed in ASD might be best understood as resulting from heterogeneous vulnerabilities in different components of an "emotional communication system" that, in typical development, emerges from the interplay between domain-general cognitive, social and affective processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather J Nuske
- Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Gaigg SB. The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Developmental Theory. Front Integr Neurosci 2012; 6:113. [PMID: 23316143 PMCID: PMC3540960 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2012.00113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2012] [Accepted: 11/11/2012] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is clinically defined by abnormalities in reciprocal social and communicative behaviors and an inflexible adherence to routinised patterns of thought and behavior. Laboratory studies repeatedly demonstrate that autistic individuals experience difficulties in recognizing and understanding the emotional expressions of others and naturalistic observations show that they use such expressions infrequently and inappropriately to regulate social exchanges. Dominant theories attribute this facet of the ASD phenotype to abnormalities in a social brain network that mediates social-motivational and social-cognitive processes such as face processing, mental state understanding, and empathy. Such theories imply that only emotion related processes relevant to social cognition are compromised in ASD but accumulating evidence suggests that the disorder may be characterized by more widespread anomalies in the domain of emotions. In this review I summarize the relevant literature and argue that the social-emotional characteristics of ASD may be better understood in terms of a disruption in the domain-general interplay between emotion and cognition. More specifically I will suggest that ASD is the developmental consequence of early emerging anomalies in how emotional responses to the environment modulate a wide range of cognitive processes including those that are relevant to navigating the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian B. Gaigg
- Department of Psychology, Autism Research Group, City University LondonLondon, UK
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