Table 2.
Studies examining the brain correlates of emotion perception in ASD.
| Reference | Participant groups | N | Matching | Paradigm | Emotional expressions studied |
Principal brain related findings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy | Sad | Anger | Fear | Surprise | Disgust | Other | ||||||
| Critchley et al. (2000) | ASD; TD | 9; 9 | CA; FSA | Identify expression vs. identify gender of briefly presented expressive faces | x | x | ↓lSTG, lLG, ↓rFG, ↓lAmyg (only in implicit gender disk) | |||||
| Hall et al. (2003) | ASD; TD | 8; 8 | CA; NVA | Match facial expression with emotional prosody | x | x | x | x | ↓lIFG, ↓lLG, ↑rTP, ↑lACC, ↓rFG | |||
| Hubl et al. (2003) | ASD; TD | 7; 7 | CA; NVA | Detect happy faces vs. detect female faces vs. scrambled face baseline vs. geometric shape visual perception task | x | x | x | ↓FG and subtle ↓INS | ||||
| Oagi et al. (2003) | ASD; TD | 5; 5 | CA; VA; NVA; FSA | Concentrate on identifying static facial expressions (actual performance tested after scanning) | x | x | x | ↓lINS, ↓lIFG, ↓lMFG, ↓lputamen | ||||
| Piggot et al. (2004) | ASD; TD | 14; 10 | CA; FSA; VA; NVA | Match static facial expressions with one another vs. identify static facial expressions vs. match geometric shapes with one another | x | x | x | ↓FG during matching | ||||
| Wang et al. (2004) | ASD; TD | 12; 12 | CA; VA | Match static facial expressions with one another vs. identify static facial expressions vs. match geometric shapes with one another | x | x | ↓FG, ↓task modulation of rAmyg; marginal ↑precuneus | |||||
| Dawson et al. (2004) | ASD; TD | 29; 22 | CA; subgroup also on FSA | Passive viewing of static facial expressions | x | ↓Emotion modulation of N300 and NSW (≈800–1200 ms) | ||||||
| Dalton et al. (2005, Exp1.) | ASD; TD | 11; 12 | CA | Identify whether or not an emotion is expressed in faces with direct or averted gaze | x | x | x | ↓FG, ↑lAmyg, ↓rMFG, ↑lOFC | ||||
| Kujala et al. (2005) | ASD; TD | 8; 8 | CA | Determine when the prosody of a spoken word (“Saara”) deviated from neutral (on 21% of trials) | x | x | x | ↓N300 to anger, topographical differences over frontal electrodes | ||||
| O’Connor et al. (2005) | ASD; TD | 30; 30 | CA | Identify static facial expressions | x | x | x | x | Delayed P1, ↓N170; diff. more marked in adults than children | |||
| Dapretto et al. (2006) | ASD; TD | 10; 10 | CA; FSA | Imitate vs. observe static facial expressions vs. null events baseline | x | x | x | x | ↓rIFG, ↓rINS, ↓rAmyg, ↑visual processing areas | |||
| Ashwin et al. (2007) | ASD; TD | 13; 13 | CA; FSA | Respond as quickly as possible when a face is shown; faces expressing no fear, mild fear, or extreme fear presented randomly among scrambled faces | x | ↓lOFC, ↓lAmyg, ↑rACC, ↑rSTS, ↑STG; ↓signal mod. by fear intensity | ||||||
| Deeley et al. (2007) | ASD; TD | 18; 9 | CA; FSA; VA; ≠NVA | Identify the gender of static faces expressing various intensities of emotions | x | x | x | x | ↓FG, ↓LG, ↓mOG, ↓IOG; ↓signal mod. by intensity | |||
| Pelphrey et al. (2007) | ASD; TD | 8; 8 | CA; VA; NVA; FSA | Respond when a face appears on the screen; static expressive and neutral faces and dynamic emotion and identity morphs were presented | x | x | ↓lFG, ↓lMFG, ↓rAmyg, ↓rSFG, ↓MTG, ↓rSTS; ↓mod. by static vs. dynamic emotions | |||||
| Korpilahti et al. (2007) | ASD; TD | 14; 13 | CA | Passive listening (while watching a silent cartoon) of two one-word prosodic utterances | x | Ealiere and ↓N1, ↑eMMN (at around 200 ms) | ||||||
| Wicker et al. (2008) | ASD; TD | 12; 14 | CA | Identify emotion vs. identify age (young/old) of face stimuli where gaze direction changes dynamically from averted to averted or averted to direct | x | x | ↓rTPJ, ↓rIFG, ↓SFG; ↓Amyg – frontal and frontal – STS connectivity | |||||
| Wong et al. (2008) | ASD; TD | 10; 12 | CA; NVA | Identify gender of or discriminate emotion (against neutral) of static face stimuli | x | x | x | x | No group diff. for P1 and N170; ↑P2 mod. by expression; dipole source diff. in FG, MFG, left cuneus, and precuneus | |||
| Corbett et al. (2009) | ASD; TD | 12; 15 | CA; ≠FSA | Determine whether two static face images are of the same emotion or person vs. whether two static abstract shapes are the same | x | x | x | x | ↓rFG, ↓lAmyg, ↑lSPL, ↑lMFG/IFG | |||
| Hadjikhani et al. (2009) | ASD; TD | 12; 7 | CA | Match static body postures of different individuals with one another | x | x | x | ↓Amyg, ↓FG. ↓INS, ↓IFG, ↓putamen, ↓premotor, ↓pulvinar, ↓colliculus, ↓accumbens | ||||
| Grézes et al. (2009) | ASD; TD | 12; 12 | CA; FSA | Oddball paradigm in which participants needed to detect 10 upside-down stimuli amongst static and dynamic body postures/movements | x | ↓rAmyg, ↓IFG. ↓rPrecentral gyrus, ↓rITG (in fear vs. neutral contrast) | ||||||
| Greimel et al. (2010) | ASD; TD | 15; 15 | CA; VA; FSA; ≠NVA | Identify static facial expressions varying in intensity vs. report own emotional response to the same facial expressions | x | x | ↓lIFG, ↓rFG (in self-report condition) | |||||
| Kleinhans et al. (2010) | ASD; TD | 29; 25 | CA; VA; NVA; FSA | Match static facial expressions with one another vs. match shapes with one another | x | x | ↓lIFG, ↑occipital lobe; rFG, lTP, and rAmyg activity to emotional faces correlated with anxiety | |||||
| Monk et al. (2010) | ASD; TD | 12; 12 | CA; VA; NVA | Indicate the left/right position of an asterisk that is shown after static face pairs that include an emotional and neutral expression (or two neutral) | x | x | x | ↑rAmyg; ↑rAmyg – ACC, ↓rAmyg – lMTG, and ↓rAmyg – IFG connectivity | ||||
| Schulte-Rüther et al. (2011) | ASD; TD | 18; 18 | CA; VA; NVA (marginal); FSA | Identify static emotional expressions vs. report own emotions in response to these expressions | ↑rdMPFC, ↓vMPFC, ↓precuneus/PCC in “other” task; ↑rdMPFC, ↑rMFG, ↑rIFC, ↑STS in “self” task | |||||||
| Bastiaansen et al. (2011) | ASD; TD | 21; 21 | CA; FSA | Observe dynamic facial expressions vs. express emotion vs. experience emotion | x | x | IFG activity correlated with CA only in ASD group | |||||
| Davis et al. (2011) | ASD; TD | 16; 16 | CA; VA; NVA; FSA | Passive viewing of static facial expression with averted or direct gaze | x | x | x | ↓vlPFC | ||||
| Weng et al. (2011) | ASD; TD | 22; 22 | CA; VA; ≠NVA | Identify the gender of static faces expressing emotions; outside scanner identify the emotional expressions | x | x | x | ↑Amyg, ↑striatum, ↑IFG; negative Amyg – CA correlation in ASD only | ||||
ASD, autism spectrum disorder; TD, typically developing; CA, chronological age; VA, verbal ability; NVA, non-verbal ability; FSA, full-scale ability; ≠, groups are not matched on this variable. l, left hemisphere; r, right hemisphere; ↑, increased signal contrast in ASD vs. comparison group; ↓, decreased signal contrast in ASD vs. comparison group. ACC, anteriro cingulate cortex; Amyg, amygdala; FG, fusiform gyrus; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; INS, insula; LG, lingual gyrus; MFG, middle frontal gyrus; dMPFC, dorsomedial prefrongal cortex; vMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex; MTG, middle temporal gyrus; OFC, orbitofrontal cortex; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; SFG, superior frontal gyrus; STG, superior temporal gyrus; STS, superior temporal sulcus; SPL, superior parietal lobe; TP, temporal pole; TPJ, temporal-parietal junction.