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Cited by 22Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchFace Recognition and PerceptionPsychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Expression Recognition Difficulty Is Associated with Social But Not Attention-to-Detail Autistic Traits and Reflects Both Alexithymia and Perceptual Difficulty

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Bothe, Ellen, Palermo, Romina, Rhodes, Gillian, Burton, Nichola, Jeffery, Linda·2019·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
DOI 10.1007/s10803-019-04158-y
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Abstract

Autistic people often show difficulty with facial expression recognition. However, the degree of difficulty varies widely, which might reflect varying symptom profiles. We examined three domains of autistic traits in the typical population and found that more autistic-like social skills were associated with greater difficulty labelling expressions, and more autistic-like communication was associated with greater difficulty labelling and perceptually discriminating between expressions. There were no associations with autistic-like attention to detail. We also found that labelling, but not perceptual, difficulty was mediated by alexithymia. We found no evidence that labelling or perceptual difficulty was mediated by weakened adaptive coding. Results suggest expression recognition varies between the sub-clinical expressions of autistic symptom domains and reflects both co-occurring alexithymia and perceptual difficulty.

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  • In a neurotypical sample, alexithymia largely explained the relationship between autistic traits and facial emotion recognition.

    “A similar pattern of results have been observed in a neurotypical sample, whereby alexithymia largely explained the relationship between autistic traits and facial emotion recognition (Bothe et al., 2019).”

    From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Bothe et al., 2019

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References 69 · Cited by 22

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Authors
Bothe, E., Palermo, R., Rhodes, G., Burton, N., & Jeffery, L.
Affiliations
The University of Western Australia (AU)
Corresponding author
Bothe, Ellen
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-08-14
Volume
49
Issue
11
Pages
4559-4571
ISSN
  • 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-3432
DOI
10.1007/s10803-019-04158-y
OpenAlex
W2967161434
Cited by
22
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3
FWCI
1.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Grant (CE110001021)
  • Research Training Program Stipend
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Keywords
facial expression recognition, autistic traits, alexithymia, attention to detail, social skills, perceptual difficulty, adaptive coding, emotion labeling, autism spectrum disorder
MeSH terms
Facial Recognition, Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Attention, Autistic Disorder, Communication Disorders, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Male, Sex Characteristics, Young Adult, Social Skills

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