Assessment of Empathy in Pervasive Development Disorder through Tasks of Judging Basic Facial Expressions

Background: Invasive Development Disorders (IDD) are a group of conditions characterized by the onset of lags and impairments in the development of social, communication and behavioral skills during infancy.  The empathy capacity prejudice has been indicated as an endophenotype characteristic of IDD.

Objectives: The present study evaluates and compares empathy in people with IDD and a control group through a task of judging basic facial expressions that are contained in an Empathy Card-deck.

Methods: Seven male participants with IDD, aged between 6 and 15 years, a minimum IQ of 70 (Wisc III) and all fulfilling criteria for IDD diagnosis (DSM IV) were evaluated through an Empathy Card-deck, an instrument developed by the researcher. 

Results: The IDD group erred significantly more than the control group in judging the card-deck of basic facial expression photos (p< 0.001), in the card-deck of drawings (p=0.007) and in both tests when the total performance was analyzed (p< 0.001). There was a significant difference between the control and IDD groups in the expression of doubt (p=0.031) and disgust (p=0.005) in the Drawings Card-deck, and in the expression of disgust (p=0.005) in the Photo Card-deck, always with a greater error index for the IDD group.  When analyzing the performance in Photos and Drawings together, there is a statistically significant difference between expressions of doubt (p=0.012), disgust (p<0.001) and surprise (p=0.006).

Conclusions: The results obtained reinforce the findings of previous studies about empathic capacity prejudice in individuals with IDD.