Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions.

Dominic A Trevisan,Elina Birmingham,Marleis Bowering

doi:10.1186/s13229-016-0108-6

Dominic A Trevisan, Elina Birmingham + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0108-6

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Journal: Molecular autism	Publication Date: Nov 11, 2016
Citations: 72	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Simon Fraser University

Abstract

BackgroundA prominent diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relates to the abnormal or diminished use of facial expressions. Yet little is known about the mechanisms that contribute to this feature of ASD.MethodsWe showed children with and without ASD emotionally charged video clips in order to parse out individual differences in spontaneous production of facial expressions using automated facial expression analysis software.ResultsUsing hierarchical multiple regression, we sought to determine whether alexithymia (characterized by difficulties interpreting one’s own feeling states) contributes to diminished facial expression production. Across groups, alexithymic traits—but not ASD traits, IQ, or sex—were associated with quantity of facial expression production.ConclusionsThese results accord with a growing body of research suggesting that many emotion processing abnormalities observed in ASD may be explained by co-occurring alexithymia. Developmental and clinical considerations are discussed, and it is argued that alexithymia is an important but too often ignored trait associated with ASD that may have implications for subtyping individuals on the autism spectrum.

Highlights

A prominent diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relates to the abnormal or diminished use of facial expressions
The main crux of our study explored the relationship between facial expression production and alexithymic traits in children with and without ASD
Our finding that alexithymic traits, but not autistic traits, predicted how expressive participants were in response to emotionally charged video stimuli adds to a growing body of literature that alexithymia seems to account for heterogeneity of emotional processing abnormalities in this population

Summary

Introduction

A prominent diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relates to the abnormal or diminished use of facial expressions. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized in part by abnormalities in the social-emotional domain and atypical verbal and nonverbal communication [1]. Experimental and observational research shows that individuals with ASD have a variety of emotion processing abnormalities, including difficulties perceiving emotions in self and others, responding to others’ emotions in empathetic ways, and expressing emotions nonverbally to demonstrate empathy and to regulate social interactions [2]. There is wide heterogeneity in the severity of such difficulties within the ASD population, and there is emerging evidence to suggest that this heterogeneity may be driven by comorbid alexithymia [3]. Recent fMRI evidence in ASD and neurotypical participants suggests alexithymia and ASD may have differing neurocognitive bases, as evidenced by the fact that ASD is associated with disruptions in brain networks associated with Theory of Mind functions but that alexithymia is associated with brain networks modulating affective processes

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