The Cambridge Mindreading Face-Voice Battery for Children (CAM-C): complex emotion recognition in children with and without autism spectrum conditions.

Ofer Golan,Yana Sinai-Gavrilov,Simon Baron-Cohen

doi:10.1186/s13229-015-0018-z

Abstract

BackgroundDifficulties in recognizing emotions and mental states are central characteristics of autism spectrum conditions (ASC). However, emotion recognition (ER) studies have focused mostly on recognition of the six ‘basic’ emotions, usually using still pictures of faces.MethodsThis study describes a new battery of tasks for testing recognition of nine complex emotions and mental states from video clips of faces and from voice recordings taken from the Mindreading DVD. This battery (the Cambridge Mindreading Face-Voice Battery for Children or CAM-C) was given to 30 high-functioning children with ASC, aged 8 to 11, and to 25 matched controls.ResultsThe ASC group scored significantly lower than controls on complex ER from faces and voices. In particular, participants with ASC had difficulty with six out of nine complex emotions. Age was positively correlated with all task scores, and verbal IQ was correlated with scores in the voice task. CAM-C scores were negatively correlated with parent-reported level of autism spectrum symptoms.ConclusionsChildren with ASC show deficits in recognition of complex emotions and mental states from both facial and vocal expressions. The CAM-C may be a useful test for endophenotypic studies of ASC and is one of the first to use dynamic stimuli as an assay to reveal the ER profile in ASC. It complements the adult version of the CAM Face-Voice Battery, thus providing opportunities for developmental assessment of social cognition in autism.

Highlights

Difficulties in recognizing emotions and mental states are central characteristics of autism spectrum conditions (ASC)
The current study focuses on recognition of complex emotions to fill a gap in the existing literature and to provide a new test of complex emotion recognition (ER) using dynamic stimuli
All participants scored above chance on the face task, and all but one participant from the ASC group scored above chance on the voice task

Summary

Introduction

Difficulties in recognizing emotions and mental states are central characteristics of autism spectrum conditions (ASC). The ability to understand other people’s emotional and other mental states underlies social skills and is a key process in the development of empathy [1]. The ability to discriminate emotions starts during the first year of life. Infants as young as 10 weeks of age respond differentially to their carer’s emotional states, expressed in both the face and voice [2]. By 7 months, infants detect incongruence between facial and vocal expressions of emotions [3]. During their second and third years of life, children start using mental state words in their speech [4].

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