Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) report difficulties extracting meaningful information from dynamic and complex social cues, like facial expressions. The nature and mechanisms of these difficulties remain unclear. Here we tested whether that difficulty can be traced to the pattern of...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier BV
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126685 |
| _version_ | 1826195163235483648 |
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| author | Kliemann, Dorit Richardson, Hilary Anzellotti, Stefano Ayyash, Dima Haskins, Amanda J Gabrieli, John D. E. Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author2 | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT |
| author_facet | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Kliemann, Dorit Richardson, Hilary Anzellotti, Stefano Ayyash, Dima Haskins, Amanda J Gabrieli, John D. E. Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author_sort | Kliemann, Dorit |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) report difficulties extracting meaningful information from dynamic and complex social cues, like facial expressions. The nature and mechanisms of these difficulties remain unclear. Here we tested whether that difficulty can be traced to the pattern of activity in “social brain” regions, when viewing dynamic facial expressions. In two studies, adult participants (male and female) watched brief videos of a range of positive and negative facial expressions, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 1: ASD n = 16, control n = 21; Study 2: ASD n = 22, control n = 30). Patterns of hemodynamic activity differentiated among facial emotional expressions in left and right superior temporal sulcus, fusiform gyrus, and parts of medial prefrontal cortex. In both control participants and high-functioning individuals with ASD, we observed (i) similar responses to emotional valence that generalized across facial expressions and animated social events; (ii) similar flexibility of responses to emotional valence, when manipulating the task-relevance of perceived emotions; and (iii) similar responses to a range of emotions within valence. Altogether, the data indicate that there was little or no group difference in cortical responses to isolated dynamic emotional facial expressions, as measured with fMRI. Difficulties with real-world social communication and social interaction in ASD may instead reflect differences in initiating and maintaining contingent interactions, or in integrating social information over time or context. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:08:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/126685 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:08:10Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1266852022-09-26T15:57:55Z Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism Kliemann, Dorit Richardson, Hilary Anzellotti, Stefano Ayyash, Dima Haskins, Amanda J Gabrieli, John D. E. Saxe, Rebecca R. McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) report difficulties extracting meaningful information from dynamic and complex social cues, like facial expressions. The nature and mechanisms of these difficulties remain unclear. Here we tested whether that difficulty can be traced to the pattern of activity in “social brain” regions, when viewing dynamic facial expressions. In two studies, adult participants (male and female) watched brief videos of a range of positive and negative facial expressions, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 1: ASD n = 16, control n = 21; Study 2: ASD n = 22, control n = 30). Patterns of hemodynamic activity differentiated among facial emotional expressions in left and right superior temporal sulcus, fusiform gyrus, and parts of medial prefrontal cortex. In both control participants and high-functioning individuals with ASD, we observed (i) similar responses to emotional valence that generalized across facial expressions and animated social events; (ii) similar flexibility of responses to emotional valence, when manipulating the task-relevance of perceived emotions; and (iii) similar responses to a range of emotions within valence. Altogether, the data indicate that there was little or no group difference in cortical responses to isolated dynamic emotional facial expressions, as measured with fMRI. Difficulties with real-world social communication and social interaction in ASD may instead reflect differences in initiating and maintaining contingent interactions, or in integrating social information over time or context. 2020-08-19T20:02:47Z 2020-08-19T20:02:47Z 2018-06 2018-01 2019-10-01T13:49:25Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0010-9452 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126685 Kliemann, Dorit et al. "Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism." Cortex 103 (June 2018): 24-43 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd en http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.02.006 Cortex Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier BV PMC |
| spellingShingle | Kliemann, Dorit Richardson, Hilary Anzellotti, Stefano Ayyash, Dima Haskins, Amanda J Gabrieli, John D. E. Saxe, Rebecca R. Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title | Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title_full | Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title_fullStr | Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title_short | Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism |
| title_sort | cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli and are sensitive to task relevance in adults with and without autism |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126685 |
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