Alexithymia explains atypical spatio-temporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is considered to be atypical in autism. This difficulty is thought to be due to the way that facial expressions are visually explored. Evidence for atypical visual exploration of emotional faces in autism is, however, equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical visual exploration of emotional facial expressions is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition. In this eye-tracking study we tested the alexithymia hypothesis using a number of recent methodological advances to study eye gaze during several emotion processing tasks (emotion recognition, intensity judgements, free gaze), in 25 adults with, and 45 without, autism. A multilevel polynomial modelling strategy was used to describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze to emotional facial expressions. Converging evidence from traditional and novel analysis methods revealed that atypical gaze to the eyes is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. Information theoretic metrics also revealed differential effects of task on gaze patterns as a function of alexithymia, but not autism. These findings highlight factors underlying atypical emotion processing in autistic individuals, with wide-ranging implications for emotion research.

Download Full-text

Preschoolers’ sensitivity to emotional facial expressions and their repetition: An ERP study

10.31234/osf.io/pu56g ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sandra Naumann ◽

Mareike Bayer ◽

Isabel Dziobek

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Expression ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Age Groups ◽

Older Age ◽

Relative Timing ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

Empathic Behavior

This study aimed to expand the understanding of the neural-temporal trajectories ofemotion processing in preschoolers using electrophysiological measures. In particular, welooked at neural responses to the repetition of emotional faces. EEG was recorded whilechildren observed sequentially presented pairs of faces. In some trials, the pair of faces wasidentical, while in others they differed with regards to the emotional expression displayed(happy, fearful or neutral). We detected greater P1 and P3 amplitudes to angry compared toneutral facial expressions, but similar amplitudes for happy compared to neutral faces. Wedid not observe modulations of the N170 by emotional facial expressions. When investigatingpreschoolers’ sensitivity to the repetition of emotional facial expressions, we found no ERPamplitudes differences for repeated vs. new emotional facial expressions. Overall, the resultssupport the idea that basic mechanisms of emotion processing are developed in preschoolperiod. The trajectory of ERP components was similar to what has been reported foryounger and older age groups, suggesting consistency of order and relative timing of differentstages of emotion processing. Additionally, findings suggest that enhanced early neuralactivation for angry vs. neutral faces is related to increased empathic behavior. More work isneeded to determine whether the repetition of an emotion leads to more effective processingduring development.

Download Full-text

Effects of early institutionalization on emotion processing in 12-year-old youth

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417001377 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 1749-1761 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Johanna Bick ◽

Rhiannon Luyster ◽

Nathan A. Fox ◽

Charles H. Zeanah ◽

Charles A. Nelson

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Developmental Trajectories ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Institutional Care ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Fearful Faces

AbstractWe examined facial emotion recognition in 12-year-olds in a longitudinally followed sample of children with and without exposure to early life psychosocial deprivation (institutional care). Half of the institutionally reared children were randomized into foster care homes during the first years of life. Facial emotion recognition was examined in a behavioral task using morphed images. This same task had been administered when children were 8 years old. Neutral facial expressions were morphed with happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotional facial expressions, and children were asked to identify the emotion of each face, which varied in intensity. Consistent with our previous report, we show that some areas of emotion processing, involving the recognition of happy and fearful faces, are affected by early deprivation, whereas other areas, involving the recognition of sad and angry faces, appear to be unaffected. We also show that early intervention can have a lasting positive impact, normalizing developmental trajectories of processing negative emotions (fear) into the late childhood/preadolescent period.

Download Full-text

Visual exploration and discrimination of emotional facial expressions in 3-, 7- and 12-month-old infants

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/15.12.795 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (12) ◽

pp. 795 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicolas Dollion* ◽

Robert Soussignan* ◽

Karine Durand ◽

Benoist Schaal ◽

Jean-Yves Baudouin*

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Visual Exploration ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions

Download Full-text

Neural Processing of Eye Gaze and Threat-Related Emotional Facial Expressions in Infancy

Child Development ◽

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01223.x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 79 (6) ◽

pp. 1752-1760 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Stefanie Hoehl ◽

Tricia Striano

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions

Download Full-text

Domestic Dogs and Human Infants Look More at Happy and Angry Faces Than Sad Faces

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-00002535 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 29 (8) ◽

pp. 749-771 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Min Hooi Yong ◽

Ted Ruffman

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Domestic Dogs ◽

Matching Task ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Human Infants ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

Human Voice ◽

Same Gender

Dogs respond to human emotional expressions. However, it is unknown whether dogs can match emotional faces to voices in an intermodal matching task or whether they show preferences for looking at certain emotional facial expressions over others, similar to human infants. We presented 52 domestic dogs and 24 seven-month-old human infants with two different human emotional facial expressions of the same gender simultaneously, while listening to a human voice expressing an emotion that matched one of them. Consistent with most matching studies, neither dogs nor infants looked longer at the matching emotional stimuli, yet dogs and humans demonstrated an identical pattern of looking less at sad faces when paired with happy or angry faces (irrespective of the vocal stimulus), with no preference for happyversusangry faces. Discussion focuses on why dogs and infants might have an aversion to sad faces, or alternatively, heightened interest in angry and happy faces.

Download Full-text

Culture Shapes the Distinctiveness of Posed and Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Anger and Disgust

10.20944/preprints202104.0424.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xia Fang ◽

Disa Sauter ◽

Marc Heerdink ◽

Gerben van Kleef

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Supervised Machine Learning ◽

Emotional Communication ◽

Facial Muscle ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Information Theoretic ◽

Facial Expressions Of Emotion ◽

First Time ◽

Homogeneous Culture

There is a growing consensus that culture influences the perception of facial expressions of emotion. However, little is known about whether and how culture shapes the production of emotional facial expressions, and even less so about whether culture differentially shapes the production of posed versus spontaneous expressions. Drawing on prior work on cultural differences in emotional communication, we tested the prediction that people from the Netherlands (a historically heterogeneous culture where people are prone to low-context communication) produce facial expressions that are more distinct across emotions compared to people from China (a historically homogeneous culture where people are prone to high-context communication). Furthermore, we examined whether the degree of distinctiveness varies across posed and spontaneous expressions. Dutch and Chinese participants were instructed to either pose facial expressions of anger and disgust, or to share autobiographical events that elicited spontaneous expressions of anger or disgust. Using the complementary approaches of supervised machine learning and information-theoretic analysis of facial muscle movements, we show that posed and spontaneous facial expressions of anger and disgust were more distinct when produced by Dutch compared to Chinese participants. These findings shed new light on the role of culture in emotional communication by demonstrating, for the first time, effects on the distinctiveness of production of facial expressions.

Download Full-text

Perceiving Positive Facial Expression Can Relieve Depressive Moods: The Effect of Emotional Contagion on Mood in People With Subthreshold Depression

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.535980 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Yuko Yamashita ◽

Tetsuya Yamamoto

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Contagion ◽

Subthreshold Depression ◽

Emotional States ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

Before And After ◽

Mood Score ◽

Happy Mood ◽

Sad Mood

Emotional contagion is a phenomenon by which an individual’s emotions directly trigger similar emotions in others. We explored the possibility that perceiving others’ emotional facial expressions affect mood in people with subthreshold depression (sD). Around 49 participants were divided into the following four groups: participants with no depression (ND) presented with happy faces; ND participants presented with sad faces; sD participants presented with happy faces; and sD participants presented with sad faces. Participants were asked to answer an inventory about their emotional states before and after viewing the emotional faces to investigate the influence of emotional contagion on their mood. Regardless of depressive tendency, the groups presented with happy faces exhibited a slight increase in the happy mood score and a decrease in the sad mood score. The groups presented with sad faces exhibited an increased sad mood score and a decreased happy mood score. These results demonstrate that emotional contagion affects the mood in people with sD, as well as in individuals with ND. These results indicate that emotional contagion could relieve depressive moods in people with sD. It demonstrates the importance of the emotional facial expressions of those around people with sD such as family and friends from the viewpoint of emotional contagion.

Download Full-text

Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions: Effects of Expression, Intensity, and Sex on Eye Gaze

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0168307 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. e0168307 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Laura Jean Wells ◽

Steven Mark Gillespie ◽

Pia Rotshtein

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Expression Intensity

Download Full-text

Early Right Motor Cortex Response to Happy and Fearful Facial Expressions: A TMS Motor-Evoked Potential Study

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11091203 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 1203 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sara Borgomaneri ◽

Francesca Vitale ◽

Simone Battaglia ◽

Alessio Avenanti

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Motor Evoked Potential ◽

Corticospinal Excitability ◽

The Body ◽

Emotional Facial Expressions ◽

Human Motor Cortex ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

The Right

The ability to rapidly process others’ emotional signals is crucial for adaptive social interactions. However, to date it is still unclear how observing emotional facial expressions affects the reactivity of the human motor cortex. To provide insights on this issue, we employed single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate corticospinal motor excitability. Healthy participants observed happy, fearful and neutral pictures of facial expressions while receiving TMS over the left or right motor cortex at 150 and 300 ms after picture onset. In the early phase (150 ms), we observed an enhancement of corticospinal excitability for the observation of happy and fearful emotional faces compared to neutral expressions specifically in the right hemisphere. Interindividual differences in the disposition to experience aversive feelings (personal distress) in interpersonal emotional contexts predicted the early increase in corticospinal excitability for emotional faces. No differences in corticospinal excitability were observed at the later time (300 ms) or in the left M1. These findings support the notion that emotion perception primes the body for action and highlights the role of the right hemisphere in implementing a rapid and transient facilitatory response to emotional arousing stimuli, such as emotional facial expressions.

Download Full-text