Changing Faces: Dynamic Emotional Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder Across Childhood and Adulthood

Marlee M Vandewouw; Eun Jung Choi; Christopher Hammill; Jason P Lerch; Evdokia Anagnostou; Margot J Taylor

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.006

Changing Faces: Dynamic Emotional Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder Across Childhood and Adulthood

Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 Aug;6(8):825-836. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.006. Epub 2020 Sep 12.

Authors

Marlee M Vandewouw¹, Eun Jung Choi², Christopher Hammill³, Jason P Lerch⁴, Evdokia Anagnostou⁵, Margot J Taylor⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Autism Research Center, Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabiliation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: marlee.vandewouw@sickkids.ca.
² Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Autism Research Center, Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabiliation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁵ Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Autism Research Center, Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabiliation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PMID: 33279458
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.006

Abstract

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is classically associated with poor emotional face processing. Few studies, however, have used more ecological dynamic stimuli. We contrasted functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of dynamic emotional face processing in ASD and typically developing (TD) cohorts across a wide age range to determine if the processing and age-related trajectories differed between participants with and without ASD.

Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected from 200 participants (5-42 years old; 107 in ASD cohort, 93 in TD cohort) during the presentation of dynamic emotional faces (neutral-to-happy, neutral-to-angry) and dynamic flowers (closed-to-open) were analyzed. Group differences and group-by-age interactions in the faces versus flowers and between emotion contrasts were investigated.

Results: Differences in activation between dynamic faces and flowers in occipital regions, including the fusiform gyri, were reduced in the ASD group. Contrasting the two emotions, ASD compared with TD participants showed increased engagement of the precentral, postcentral, and superior temporal gyri to happy faces and increased activation to angry faces occipitally. Emotion processing regions, such as insula, temporal pole, and frontal regions, showed increased recruitment with age to happy faces compared with both angry faces and flowers in the TD group, but decreased recruitment with age in the ASD group.

Conclusions: Using dynamic stimuli, we demonstrated that participants with ASD processed faces similarly to nonface stimuli, and age-related atypicalities were more pronounced to happy faces in participants with ASD. We demonstrated emotion-specific atypicalities in a large group of participants with ASD that underscore persistent difficulties from childhood into mid-adulthood.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Development; Dynamic stimuli; Emotional faces; Neuroimaging; fMRI.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Anger
Autism Spectrum Disorder*
Child
Child, Preschool
Emotions
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition*
Humans
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding