Table 1.
Summary of studies included in the current study. Emotion column refers to emotions that participants are asked to recognize, mimic or describe.
(Kandalaft et al. 2013)
| Reference | Designa | ASD Sample Size (gender) | ASD Age | IQ | ASD type | Intervention type | Emotion | Intervention duration | Measure | Main outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Piana et al. 2021) | Pre-Post intervention | 10(9m, 1f) | 9.3(1.16) | 87.2 ± 13.97 | ASD | Computerized program | Happiness, Sadness, Anger and Fear | 4 to 6 weeks, ten sessions of playing the Guess the Emotion serious game, each session lasting maximum of twenty min |
Test of Emotion Comprehension | Increased emotion recognition accuracy after training with the computerized program |
| (Leung 2021) | Pre-Post intervention | 12(9m, 3f) | 9.91(2.23) | – | ASD | Computerized Program | Angry, Happy | 144 trials of the sequence of 500 ms ISI, a 500 ms fixation cross, followed by the stimulus image for 1500 m. | Correctness, Imitation score | Emotion recognition improvements in the computer-based emotion imitation paradigm were larger in people with higher levels of autistic attributes |
| (Wedyan et al. 2021) | Pre-Post intervention | 15(9m,6f) | 5.7(0.28) | 125 ± 12.9 | ASD | Computerized Program | Anger, disgust, fear, happiness,, sadness, and surprise | 15 min two times per week, for 20 weeks | Correct response score | |
| (Lecciso et al. 2021) | Pre-Post intervention | 12(12m) | 9.33(2.19) | – | ASD | Computerized program | Happiness, sadness, Fear, Anger | – | Facial Emotion Recognition Task and Basic Emotion Production task | Computer based programs promotes facial recognition and expression of basic emotions in children with ASD |
| (Garcia-Garcia et al. 2021) | Pre-Post intervention | 3(NA) | 8–10 | – | ASD | Computerized program | Happiness, anger, surprise | – | Completion rate, number of errors and spend time for emotion recognition | Computerized programs can be considered as useful tools for teaching emotions to the ASD children. |
| (Tsai et al. 2020) | Pre-Post intervention | 3(3m) | 7.73(0.64) | 87 ± 13 | ASD | VR | Anger, disgust, fear, happiness,sadness, and surprise | 5–6 weaks, 20 tests, twice a week, 30–40 min duration for each test | Correct response score | The VR system improved significantly facial expressions. |
| (Metcalfe et al. 2019) | CC | 27(26m, 1f) | 10.9(3) | – | ASD | Computerized program | Anger, boredom, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise and worry | 32 timed trials is visible for a maximum of 10 s, with a 1 s break between trials, followed by a fixation cross for half a second in the screen center |
Number of errors committed | Situational computerized –based cues can aid emotion recognition ability |
| (Babu et al. 2018) | CC | 8(4m,4f) | 14.75 (3.28) | – | High function ASD | VR | Happy, Angry | 1–1.25 h | Gaze-related indices correlated with Spence Children‘s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) |
Response time was significantly different for ASD after VR angry emotion experiment (p = 0.039). |
| (Ip et al. 2018) | CC | 72(64m, 8f) | 9.03 | – | ASD | VR | NA | 28-session program that lasted for 14 weeks | Test for emotion recognition and Psych educational Profile, Third Edition (PEP-3) |
ASD children from VR-exposed group scored higher on emotion expression and regulation after the training |
| (Yuan and Ip 2018) | CC | 36 (31 m,5f) | 8.97(1.10) | – | ASD | VR | NA | 1 h | PEP-3 affective expressions | VR changed affective expression in ASD individuals significantly (p = 0.037) |
| (Hernandez-Mosti et al. 2018) | – | 5(5m) | 12–18 | – | ASD | VR | Fear, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Love | – | – | VR as an attractive environment can be used for acquiring information about individual preferences for future interventions |
| (Yang et al. 2017) | Non-RCT | 17(15m,2f) | 2.5(3.89) | 109.65 ± 13.32 | High functioning ASD | VR | NA | Five weeks, two 1-h sessions per week and thus 10 h in total. | Advanced Clinical Solutions for WAIS-IV and WMS-IV Social Perception Subtest (ACS-SP) | Neuroimaging-based predictive biomarkers for treatment effectiveness of VR in adults with ASD were proposed. |
| (Didehbani et al. 2016) | NA | 17(16m,1f) | 11.6(2.8) | 111.6 ± 10.8 | High functioning ASD | VR | NA | 10 VR-SCT sessions, 2 per week, 1 h each with a peer for across 5 weeks |
NEPSY-II Affect recognition and Ekman 60 | Improvements on measures of emotion recognition, social attribution, and executive function (p = 0.001) were observed. |
| (Chen et al. 2016) | Pre-post intervention | 6(5m,1f) | 11.53(NA) | 103.66 ± 9.29 | ASD | Augmented reality | Joy, surprise, contempt, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger | Augmented reality, emotional content videos overlaid on the storybook | Correct assessment ratio | An AR strategy proved useful for teaching ASD for understanding emotions in facial expressions |
| (Kim et al. 2015) | CC | 19 (13 m, 6f) | 11.1(2.5) | 110.6 ± 15.3 | High functioning ASD | Computerized program | Happiness, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise | VR system for applying forty-eight 10 s trials with different facial expressions | VR emotion sensitivity test (V-REST) | Significant difference between ASD and control was revealed for recognition happy emotion. |
| (Bekele et al. 2014) | CC | 10(NA) | 14.7(1.1) | 116.5 | – | VR | Joy, surprise, contempt, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger | 28 randomized trials (each 15–20 s long) to seven emotional expressions (four specified levels of intensity). | Accuracy, response latency, and ratings of response confidence for emotion recognition of labeled avatars |
VR can be considered as useful tool for ASD intervention |
| (Maskey et al. 2014) | Non-RCT | 9(9m) | 11.2(2) | – | ASD | VR | Phobia/Fear | Four 20–30 min sessions | Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-parent version (SCAS-P) and child version (SCAS-C) | VR is highly effective treatment for specific phobia/fear for some ASD |
| (Serret et al. 2014) | Non-RCT | 33(31m,2f) | 11.4(3.16) | 70.5 ± 27.6 | ASD | Computerized program | Happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise | Two one-hour VR sessions per week over four weeks | Participant self-rating using a computer program | VR is promising approach for emotion recognition for ASD individuals. |
| CC | 8 (6 m,2f) | 21.2 (2.71) | 111.88 ± 8.51 | High functioning ASD | VR | Happy, sad, fear, surprise, anger, disgust |
10 sessions across 5 weeks | Advanced Clinical Solutions for WAIS-IV and WMS-IV Social Perception Subtest, Facial Expressions of Emotion Stimuli and Tests (Ekman 60) | Significant enhancement for social cognitive measures of theory of mind and emotion recognition was obtained following VR training. | |
| (Young and Posselt 2012) | RCT | 13 (NA) |
4–8 | – | ASD | Computerized program | Happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, disgusted, distressed, scheming, guilty, thoughtful, admiring, quizzical, flirting, bored, interested, and proud |
Participants were asked to view Transporters DVD, 15 episodes on the DVD, each one lasting 5–10 min | NEPSY-II affect recognition | Improvements in emotion recognition were observed based on the content of the game. |
| (Hopkins et al. 2011) | RCT | 13(12m, 1f) | 10.05(2.30) 10.05(2.30) |
92. 05 ± 18.63 | High functioning ASD | Computerized program | Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise | Use the FaceSay software twice a week for 10–25 min in each session for 6 weeks . |
Child’s emotion recognition score (correct responses) |
Both low and high functioning autism children showed improvements for emotion recognition |
| (Golan et al. 2010) | RCT | 20(15m,5f) | 5.6(1.00) | – | ASD | Computerized program | Happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted, surprised, excited, tired, unfriendly, kind, sorry, proud, jealous, joking | Children were asked to watch at least three episodes per day over a period of 4 weeks. | PowerPoint slide show –based emotion recognition tasks |
The computerized game significantly improves emotion recognition in children with ASD |
| (Cheng et al. 2010) | Pre-post intervention | 3(3m) | 9(1) | 104 ± 13.86 | ASD | Computerized program | Empathy | 5 months, 40 min sessions, 7–21 days for baseline and 22 days for intervention. | Empathy Rating Scale | Computerized virtual learning had significant and positive effects on participant recognition of empathy. |
| (Beaumont and Sofronoff 2008) | RCT | 26(23m, 3f) | 9.64(1.21) | 107.15 ± 11.94 | Asperger | Computerized program | NA | Seven consecutive weekly sessions with different durations, 5 month follow-up | Emotion Regulation and Social Skills Questionnaire (ERSSQ). |
Junior Detective Training Program is effective in enhancing emotional understanding of ASD Childs. |
| (Bölte et al. 2006) | CC | 10(10m) | 29.4(5.9) | 94.3 ± 18.9 | High functioning ASD | Computerized program | Happy, sad, angry, surprised, disgusted, fear-full, and neutral | 1 session of virtual face recognition contains 500 emotional face | FEFA a computerized emotion recognition | No significant activation changes in the fusiform region of the brain were observed after training HFA children by a computer-based training program |
| (Silver and Oakes 2001) | RCT | 11(NA) | 13.11(0.92) | – | ASD | Computerized program | Angry, afraid, sad, happy | 10 daily computer sessions (over 2 to 3 weeks | Emotion Recognition Cartoons | Computer program designed for training emotions reduced significantly the error rate of ASD children. |
a
Design: case-control (CC), randomized control trials (RCT), Non-randomized control trial (Non-RCT), VR: virtual reality, HFA: High-functioning autism, LFA: low-functioning autism, ASD: autism spectrum disorder, NA: Not Available.