Diminished Sensitivity to Sad Facial Expressions in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders is Associated with Symptomatology and Adaptive Functioning
Open accessAbstract
Prior studies implicate facial emotion recognition (FER) difficulties among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, many investigations focus on FER accuracy alone and few examine ecological validity through links with everyday functioning. We compared FER accuracy and perceptual sensitivity (from neutral to full expression) between 42 adolescents with high functioning (IQ > 80) ASD and 31 typically developing adolescents (matched on age, IQ, sex ratio) across six basic emotions and examined links between FER and symptomatology/adaptive functioning within the ASD group. Adolescents with ASD required more intense facial expressions for accurate emotion identification. Controlling for this overall group difference revealed particularly diminished sensitivity to sad facial expressions in ASD, which was uniquely correlated with ratings of autism-related behavior and adaptive functioning.
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Individuals with ASD are less sensitive to both positively and negatively valenced social information.
“Individuals with ASD are less sensitive to both positively and negatively valenced social information.42, 64, 65”
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- Authors
- Wallace, G. L., Case, L. K., Harms, M. B., Silvers, J. A., Kenworthy, L., & Martin, A.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wallace, Gregory L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2011-02-24
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1475-1486
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- PMC
- PMC3448486
- OpenAlex
- W2009190061
- Cited by
- 128
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 5.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (ZIAMH002920)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, high-functioning autism, facial emotion recognition, sad facial expressions, perceptual sensitivity, emotion recognition accuracy, adaptive behavior, autism symptomatology, adolescents, basic emotions
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Severity of Illness Index, Visual Perception, Case-Control Studies
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