Emotional Reactions of Children with Autism: A … · Background In autism, for unfamiliar people: • Slower brain response to faces (e.g., Webb et al., 2006) • Slower emotion

Emotional Reactions of Children with Autism: A Review and an Eye-tracking Study

Heather Nuske, Dr. Giacomo Vivanti, Dr. Kristelle Hudry and Prof. Cheryl Dissanayake

July, 2013

The starting point….

Widespread belief: individuals with autism are emotionally detached from others

Does this reflect reality? How do people with autism process emotions?

Emotional communication builds relationships

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

1. 2.

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit than explicit tasks

1. 2.

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

Explicit  emo,on  recogni,on    

•       Selec&on  of  emo&onal  state  •       e.g.,  labeling  emo&on  

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit than explicit tasks

1. 2.

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

Explicit  emo,on  recogni,on    

•       Selec&on  of  emo&onal  state  •       e.g.,  labeling  emo&on  

Implicit  emo,onal  appraisal    

•       Automa&c  responses  •       e.g.,  con&ngent  cogni&ve,                  behavioural  or  physiological              changes  

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit than explicit tasks

1. 2.

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

Implicit  emo,onal  appraisal    

•       Automa&c  responses  •       e.g.,  con&ngent  cogni&ve,                  behavioural  or  physiological              changes  

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit than explicit tasks

1. 2.

Review More than 200 studies on emotion processing (Nuske, Vivanti & Dissanayake, 2013)

Implicit  emo,onal  appraisal    

•       Automa&c  responses  •       e.g.,  con&ngent  cogni&ve,                  behavioural  or  physiological              changes  

Research Question

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit vs. explicit tasks

1. 2.

Research Question

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit vs. explicit tasks

Almost all research on processing of emotion in unfamiliar people

1. 2.

Research Question

How do individuals with autism (implicitly) react to the emotions of familiar people?

Difficulties more consistently identified on implicit vs. explicit tasks

Almost all research on processing of emotion in unfamiliar people

1. 2.

Not the same emotion for all!

Respond differently to familiar people

Organisation of social life (Herrmann et al., 2012; Schmidt, Rakoczy, & Tomasello, 2012)

Background

Normative response to familiar, but not unfamiliar people in autism (Aylward et al., 2004; Oberman, Ramachandran & Pineda, 2008; Pierce et al., 2004; Pierce & Redcay, 2008)

Attachment to caregivers in autism (e.g., Capps, Sigman, & Mundy, 1994; Dissanayake & Crossley, 1996)

Less physiological reactivity to emotions of unfamiliar people in autism (e.g., Blair, 1999; Kuchinke et al., 2011; Corona et al., 1998; Riby et al., 2012)

Background

Normative response to familiar, but not unfamiliar people in autism (Aylward et al., 2004; Oberman, Ramachandran & Pineda, 2008; Pierce et al., 2004; Pierce & Redcay, 2008)

Attachment to caregivers in autism (e.g., Capps, Sigman, & Mundy, 1994; Dissanayake & Crossley, 1996)

Less physiological reactivity to emotions of unfamiliar people in autism (e.g., Blair, 1999; Kuchinke et al., 2011; Corona et al., 1998; Riby et al., 2012)

Children with autism are more empathic towards caregivers than unfamiliar people (Hudry & Slaughter, 2009)

Background

In autism, for unfamiliar people:

•  Slower brain response to faces (e.g., Webb et al., 2006)

•  Slower emotion recognition (e.g., Akechi et al., 2009; Bal et al., 2010)

•  Delayed facial reactivity to emotions (Oberman et al., 2009)

•  Slower brain response to emotional facial expressions (e.g., Korpilahti et al., 2007)

Timing, an important factor

Background

Background In autism, for unfamiliar people:

•  Slower brain response to faces (e.g., Webb et al., 2006)

•  Slower emotion recognition (e.g., Akechi et al., 2009; Bal et al., 2010)

•  Delayed facial reactivity to emotions (Oberman et al., 2009)

•  Slower brain response to emotional facial expressions (e.g., Korpilahti et al., 2007)

Timing, an important factor

In autism, for familiar people:

•  No difference in brain response latency to familiar faces (Dawson et al., 2002)

Background In autism, for unfamiliar people:

•  Slower brain response to faces (e.g., Webb et al., 2006)

•  Slower emotion recognition (e.g., Akechi et al., 2009; Bal et al., 2010)

•  Delayed facial reactivity to emotions (Oberman et al., 2009)

•  Slower brain response to emotional facial expressions (e.g., Korpilahti et al., 2007)

Timing, an important factor

In autism, for familiar people:

•  No difference in brain response latency to familiar faces (Dawson et al., 2002)

•  Response latency to emotion of familiar people?

Do children with autism react differently to emotions of familiar vs. unfamiliar people?

Normative response to emotions of familiar (not unfamiliar) people

-  Response -  Response latency

Eye-tracking Pupillometry

•  Measure of automatic emotional reactions

•  Non-invasive

Reactivity to Fear •  Detectable physiological responses

(Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983)

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Methods

La Trobe University

Participants

•  25 children with ASD (mixed ability)

•  21 typically developing children

•  2 – 5 years

•  Recruited from a university children’s centre (La Trobe University, Australia)

•  Groups matched on age and gender ratio

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Methods

La Trobe University

Materials

•  ADOS (autistic symptoms)

•  Mullen (cognitive ability)

•  Emotion videos

Apparatus

•  Tobii Eye Tracker (T120)

22 La Trobe University

Videos

•  3 videos of familiar people and 3 of unfamiliar people (for each group)

Controlling Luminosity

•  Stimuli

•  Ambient

Data Reduction

•  Pupil size measured at 60Hz

Outcome

•  From mean of neutral to fear:

•  Peak % change

•  Peak % change latency

Methods

23 La Trobe University

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Results

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Data  not  shown  for  copyright  reasons  

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Results

La Trobe University

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Familiar Fear Unfamiliar Fear

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Results

La Trobe University

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Familiar Fear Unfamiliar Fear

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Data  not  shown  for  copyright  reasons  

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Results Summary

La Trobe University

The magnitude of children with autisms’ reactivity to emotion in:

•  Familiar people: Normal

•  Unfamiliar people: Reduced

The timing of emotional reactivity to emotion in:

•  Familiar and unfamiliar people: Delayed

Conclusions

•  Often-reported difficulties with emotions in autism may be particular to the emotions of unfamiliar people

•  Familiarity with a person is necessary for an emotional response

•  Perhaps the neural architecture for emotion processing in autism is functional

•  Requires ‘bootstrapping’ for circuits involved in familiarity processing?

•  Slower emotion processing in autism

•  Likely to cause communication and social-reciprocity difficulties for children with autism

Overall Interpretations

Familiarity with a person may facilitate emotional reactivity for individuals with autism

Emotion processing takes more time for these individuals

“..there are the times when it all feels like an intricate dance, and I'm a step out of sync with everyone else around me” (http:/jerobison.blogspot.com.au, 2009)

Clinical Implications  

   Individuals  with  au&sm  react  normally  to  emo&ons  of  familiar  people:  

       -­‐  Establishing  rapport  is  fundamental  for  crea,ng  emo,onal  learning                            opportuni,es  

Emo&onal  reac&ons  takes  more  &me  for  these  individuals:  

       -­‐  Reac,ons  that  may  seem  unrelated  to  prior  events,  might  be  

Individuals  with  au,sm  are  not  as  pervasively  detached  from  others’  

emo,ons  

Thank you

Acknowledgements

Families!

Kavi Jayasinghe, Carmela Germano and the rest of the OTARC team

Staff at La Trobe University Childrens’ Centre/ ASELCC

Russell Beaten