Face, Mouth, Versus Eyes: A Comparison of Emotion Recognition in Children with ASD and Typical Development

Background: Many studies suggest emotion recognition is positively correlated to children’s social competence. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in emotion recognition compared to their typically developing (TD) peers (Rump Giovannelli, Minshew, & Strauss, 2009). Whereas TD children demonstrate proficient emotion recognition skills early childhood, children with ASD have delayed development of these skills (e.g., Rump et al., 2009). Some studies suggest children with ASD have more difficulty recognizing fear and anger than do their TD counterparts (Kuusikko, 2009; Rump, et al., 2009).  Other research indicates that children with ASD focus primarily on the mouth during emotion recognition tasks; whereas TD children focus primarily on the eyes  (Klin, Jones, Schultz, Volkmar, & Cohen, 2002). A recent study specifically examined these group differences in gaze patterns in relation to particular areas of the face (eyes, mouth, or other). It was discovered that better emotion recognition accuracy was positively correlated with visual fixation on the eyes rather than the mouth for both groups (Bal et al., 2010).  To date, no studies have examined these groups on their emotion recognition of full faces compared to recognition in just eyes and just mouths. 

 Objectives: The objectives of this study are to assess differences in emotion recognition ability in children with ASD and TD children and to investigate group differences in children’s ability to recognize emotions shown only in the eyes or mouth.

 Methods: The present study currently consists of 36 typically developing children and 20 children with ASD, all between the ages of 3 and 6 years, 11 months; however, data collection is ongoing.  The emotion recognition task uses a computer-based program to assess emotion recognition.  This program uses photographs to show images of full faces, eyes, or mouths that gradually transition from neutral into one of four emotions.  The program software records each participant’s  correct responses.  

 Results: One-way ANOVAs were used to examine group differences in emotion recognition. When viewing full faces children with ASD were less likely to recognize sad expressions.  When viewing just mouths, children with ASD were slower to identify happiness.  Lastly, children with ASD were less successful in identifying angry eyes and fearful eyes than their TD counterparts.  However, the results regarding just eyes were only marginally significant.  In order to increase the power of our analysis, we are continuing data collection.  Additional results will be presented.

Conclusions: Thus far the present study has confirmed past research suggesting that children with ASD have deficits in emotion recognition, especially in identifying negative emotions.  However, it expands on current knowledge by comparing their ability to identify emotions using different parts of the face.  This may be used to inform future interventions and create successful strategies for helping children with ASD improve their emotion recognition skills.