Table 1.
Parameter details in original studies.
| Name | N (ASD/control) | Gender (% males) | Age (mean ASD/control) | Diagnostic method | Cognitive level | Stimuli | Measure | Skills assessed | Scales | Quality score | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangerter et al. (25) | 124/41 | 75/65.85% | Children > 6 years old and adults (14.97 ± 8.19/16.27 ± 13.18) | ASD (ADOS-2) | IQ > 60 (KBIT-2) 99.25 ± 19.25 |
Funny videos (America's funniest home videos' library) | Automatic facial analysis software FACET (FACS) | Spontaneous expression of Joy | SRS-2 ABC ABI |
High | Lower expression of joy in ASD group (p < 0.05). Correlation between the activation of AU12 and ABI impulsivity and hypersensitivity. Distinction between 2 subgroups: hypo-expressive (correlation with ABC social withdrawal) and hyper-expressive (correlation with ABI impulsivity) |
| Capriola-Hall et al. (28) | 20/20 | 90/70% | Children 9–12 years old (10.20/10.81) | ASD (ADOS-2) | No intellectual deficit (WASI-II) 100.55/118.15 | Dynamic human faces and cartoons, emotional scene with audio | Automatic facial analysis software FEET (Kinect VT-KFER) | Voluntary expression of joy, anger, fear, neutral | High | Differences in FEE accuracy (p = 0.008), mainly with human faces (p < 0.05). More errors in the ASD group for low-intensity cartoons and high-intensity human faces. Convergence between human and computer coding (p < 0.001) |
|
| Del Coco et al. (29) | 5/5 | No data | Children 4–6 years old (5.5 ± 1.3) | ASD (ADOS-2) | Development quotient between 92 and 42 (mean 70) (GMDS) | Videos from cartoons | Automatic computer analysis | Spontaneous expression of joy, fear, sadness | Low | Higher facial expression complexity in the control group both overall and when the upper and lower face are analyzed separately. More intra-group similarity than inter-group similarity. Statistics of data were not provided. |
|
| Grossard et al. (30) | 36/157 | 75/52% | Children 6–12 years old 8.8 ±1.8/8.4 ± 1.4 | ASD (ADOS and/or ADI-R) | WISC-IV 92.5 (±17.5) | Verbal request - Dynamic Avatar faces |
Automatic facial analysis algorithm (random forest classifier) | Voluntary expression of joy, sadness, anger, neutral | ADI-R sub-scores | High | More ambiguous expressions in subjects with ASD requiring consideration of more facial markers. Anger confused with joy more frequently in the ASD group. |
| Guha et al. (31) | 24/21 | No data | Children 9–14 years old | ASD | No data | Dynamic human faces (Mind reading corpus) | Facial Motion Capture | Voluntary expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | Medium | Difference between groups (p = 0.024), mostly for fear, disgust and sadness, especially in the eye area. Less facial symmetry, less variation in intensity. | |
| Guha et al. (32) | 20/19 | 90/95% | Children 9–14 years old 12.90 ± 3.19 /12.67 ± 2.34 | ASD (ADOS) | HFA (Lieter-3/PPVT-4) 106.35 ± 15.38/108.74 ± 11.93 | Dynamic human faces (Mind Reading corpus) | Facial Motion Capture (FACS) | Voluntary expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | Medium | Less complexity of facial movements in the ASD group mainly from the eye area. Significant differences in joy, sadness, disgust (p < 0.05) mainly because of the eye area |
|
| Landowska et al. (33) | 11/8 | No data | Children | ASD | ? | Interactions with a robot | Automatic facial analysis software Face Reader (FACS) | Spontaneous expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | Low | Less expression of sadness (p = 0.002) and disgust (p = 0.01) in the ASD group during evaluation. | |
| Manfredonia et al. (34) | 144/41 | 77.8/65.9% | Children and adults 6–63 years old (14.6 ± 7.8/16.3 ± 13.18) | ASD (ADOS) | IQ > 60 (KBIT-2) 99.2 (±19.6) | Written request | Automatic facial analysis software FACET (FACS) | Voluntary expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | ABI SRS-2 |
High | Difference in the use of joy, fear, surprise and disgust AUs (p < 0.05), but not sadness and anger AUs. Negative correlation between some FEEs and SRS and ABI social communication subscores (mainly <13 years) |
| Metallinou et al. (35) | 21/16 | No data | Children 9–14 years old | ASD | HFA | Dynamic human faces | Facial Motion Capture | Voluntary expression of joy | Medium | More asynchronous movements between the different face regions and more variability and inaccuracy at the lower face in ASD children | |
| Owada et al. (36) | 18/17 | 100/100% | Adults 18–55 years old (32.2 ± 7/29.6 ± 4.3) | ASD (ADI-R and ADOS) | > 80 (WAIS) 105.8 ± 10.9 | Semi-structured interview (ADOS) | Automatic facial analysis software Face Reader Noldus (FACS) | Spontaneous expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, neutral | ADOS WHOQ-OL GAF AQ STAY-A CESD |
Medium | More neutrality and less joy in the AD group with less variability (p < 0.05). Correlation between neutrality and higher ADOS social reciprocity subscore (p = 0.042). |
| Samad et al. (37) | 8/8 | No data | Children and young adults 7–20 years old (13 ± 4.4/16 ± 4.1) | ASD | No data | Static faces of 3D avatars | Facial imaging sensor 3D | Spontaneous expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | Low | Asymmetrical facial muscle activation in ASD subjects compared to control group | |
| Trevisan et al. (38) | 17/17 | 76/76% | Children (10.21 ± 1.78/8.97 ± 1.30) | ASD (ADI-R and ADOS) | HFA (WASI vocabulary and matrix subtests) | Emotional videos | Automatic facial analysis software FACET (FACS) | Spontaneous expression: Positive (joy), negative: (sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust) neutral | AQ CAM |
Medium | Negative correlation between alexithymia (CAM) and negative FEEs (p = 0.03), positive correlation with neutrality (p = 0.012) but not with positive FEE. No correlation between FEE and autistic symptoms (AQ). Difference in FEE scores between ASD and controls only for neutrality (p = 0.024) from univariate analysis. |
| Wieckowski et al. (39) | 20/20 | 90/70% | Children 9–12 years old | ASD (ADOS-2) | HFA (WASI-II) 100.55/118.15 |
Dynamic cartoon and human faces Photo of emotional scene without face with audio | Automatic facial analysis software FEET (Kinect) |
Voluntary expression of Joy, anger, fear, neutral | NEPSY-II | High | Children with ASD expressed accurate but more atypical FEE than controls in all conditions. Positive correlation between FEE on verbal request only and FER in the ASD group (p = 0.01), but not the control group. |
| Zampella et al. (40) | 20/16 | 95/87.5% | Children 9–16 years old (13.8 ± 1.38/14.21 ± 2.03) | ASD (HFA) (ADOS-2 et ADI-R) SCQ | (WASI-II or WISC-IV) 108.5 ± 14.15/113.94 ± 12.68 | Interactions during a conversation with a caregiver or a stranger | Automatic facial analysis software OpenFace (FACS) |
Spontaneous expression of joy | SRS-2 Vineland II IRI |
Medium | Children with ASD (p- 0.02) as well as their non-familiar interlocutor (p- 0.002) expressed less smiles than controls. Children with ASD showed less coordination in reciprocal smiles (p−0.02). Positive correlation between the coordination of smiles in ASD and social skills (SRS-2, IRI, Vineland-II). |
| Zane et al. (41) | 19/18 | 89/94% | Children and adolescents 12.8/12.11 | ASD (ADOS-2) | HFA (Lieter-R/PPVT-4) 105–108/110–119 | Dynamic human faces (Mind Reading corpus) | Facial Motion Capture (FACS) | Voluntary expression of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust | Medium | Quantity of facial movements was dependent on intensity but independent of expression type (unlike the control group), and more jerky and fleeting. |
ABC, Autism Behavior Checklist; ABI, Autism Behavior Interview; ADI-R, Autism Diagnosis Interview-Revised; ADOS-2, Autism diagnosis observation schedule; AQ, Autism Quotient; AU, Action Units; CAM, Children's Alexithymia Measure; CESD, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; FEE, Facial Emotion Expression; FACS, Facial action coding system; GAF, Global Assessment of Functioning; GMDS, Griffith Mental Development Scales; HFA, High Functioning Autism; IQ, Intelligence Quotient; IRI, Interpersonal Reactivity Index; KBIT-2, Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test 2; Lieter-R, Lieter International Performance Scale-Revised; N, number of subjects; p, p-value; %, percentage; PPVT-4, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test 4; SCQ, Social Communication Questionnaire; SRS-2, Social Reciprocity Scale 2; STAY-A, State Trait Anxiety Inventory; Vineland II, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale 2; WAIS, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; WASI-II, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale Intelligence 2; WHOQOL, World Health Organization Quality of Life; WISC-IV, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.