Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are generally characterized by marked impairments in processing of social emotional information, but less is known about emotion processing in adults with the disorder. This study aimed to address this by collecting data on social attention (eye tracking), emotional arousal (skin conductance level, SCL), and emotional awareness (self-report) in a paradigm with social emotional video clips. Fifty-two young, intelligent adults with ASD (IQrange = 88–130, Agerange = 18–24) and 31 typically developing (TD) ASD (IQrange = 94–139, Agerange = 19–28) gender matched controls participated and reported on severity of autism symptoms [Social Responsiveness Scale for Adults (SRS-A)]. Results showed no group difference in social attention, while autism symptom severity was related to decreased attention to faces across participants (r = −.32). Average SCL was lower in the ASD group, but no group difference in arousal reactivity (change from baseline to emotional phases) was detected. Lower SCL during video clips was related to autism symptom severity across participants (r = −.29). ASD individuals reported lower emotional awareness. We conclude that, even though no deviations in social attention or emotional reactivity were found in ASD, an overall lower level of social attention and arousal may help explain difficulties in social functioning in ASD.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex condition with impairments in social communication and behavior
The groups were matched with regard to sex [χ2 [1] = .02, p = .55], while the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) individuals were significantly older than the typically developing (TD) group [t (73.79) = 3.91, p < .001, d = −0.8]
The results did not show a significant difference in social attention between young adults with ASD and their peers, there was a trend towards less attention for faces in autism
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex condition with impairments in social communication and behavior. In the search for mechanisms that underlie the disorder, it is well established that children with ASD show deviant emotional processing, as is reflected in lower arousal levels when processing emotions of others [1, 2] and difficulty in recognition of facial emotions in others [3]. Behavioral investigation of social emotional processing showed that autistic individuals are slower to make emotional attributions even though their emotional attributions were accurate [7]. Neural investigation of emotional attributions to body language showed less coherent brain activation in children with ASD compared to their neurotypical peers [8]. Studies looking at self-reports of individuals with ASD have found that they are less able to recognize and identify
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