Emotion recognition skills and the ability to understand the mental states of others are crucial for normal social functioning. Conversely, delays and impairments in these processes can have a profound impact on capability to engage in, maintain, and effectively regulate social interactions. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the performance of 42 autistic children (Mage = 8.25 years, SD = 2.22), 45 unaffected siblings (Mage = 8.65 years, SD = 2.40), and 41 typically developing (TD) controls (Mage = 8.56 years, SD = 2.35) on the Affect Recognition (AR) and Theory of Mind (TOM) subtests of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment Battery. There were no significant differences between siblings and TD controls. Autistic children showed significantly poorer performance on AR when compared to TD controls and on TOM when compared to both TD controls and unaffected siblings. An additional comparison of ASD, unaffected sibling and TD control subsamples, matched on full-scale IQ, revealed no group differences for either AR or TOM. AR and TOM processes have received less research attention in siblings of autistic children and remain less well characterized. Therefore, despite limitations, findings reported here contribute to our growing understanding of AR and TOM abilities in siblings of autistic children and highlight important future research directions.
To examine neurobehavioral findings in three genetic syndromes (PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome, Malan syndrome [mutations in the NFIX gene], and SYNGAP1-related disorder), a mixed group of other neurodevelopmental genetic syndromes (NDGS), idiopathic neurodevelopmental disorder, and neurotypical control participants.
People vary in their ability to identify faces (Burton, White, & McNeil, 2010), and that factors such as anxiety and facets of personality can influence an individual’s ability to accurately recognise a face (e.g., Davis et al., 2011; Megreya and Bindemann 2013). Two experiments examined how anxiety may influence the way in which faces are attended.
In particular, how individuals with higher anxiety traits may actively avoid faces relative to those with low anxiety.
Experiment 1 examined the relationship between anxiety and perception of neutral faces as positive or negative (valence). Participants were required to subjectively rate the expressions of happy, neutral, and angry faces, on a continuum, following identity matching. Consistent with previous findings mood altered the ability to identify faces, but also the perception of faces. Individuals who
were more anxious perceived angry expressions to be more negative. Similarly, those who reported higher levels of depression perceived angry expressions to be more negative. A subsequent experiment investigating the relationship between anxiety and time spent attending to faces, by
recording eye movements, will also be presented. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in perceptual processing skills and mechanisms that underlie the relationship between mood and face processing.
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