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A Systematic Review of the Eye Tracking and Electroencephalography Correlates of Facial Emotion Recognition in Individuals on the Autism Spectrum
Objectives: This systematic review evaluates the research examining the ET and EEG outcomes of individuals with ASD during FER in order to provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art in the area.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Six electronic databases were searched for articles examining either ET or EEG in individuals with ASD while completing FER tasks. This review examines 54 articles examining ET or EEG in individuals with ASD during FER meeting inclusion criteria.
Results: Both atypical gaze and cortical activation were found in articles included in this review. Reduced gaze to the eyes of emotionally expressive faces were consistently found in adult studies, however, were less consistently found in child studies, indicating an effect of developmental processes on these functions. Atypical cortical activation was evident across the developmental trajectory with effects being particularly evident for the N170 event related potential. Studies examining quantified EEG suggest that across the frequency spectra, individuals with ASD have atypical cognitive processing of FER, possibly indicating impairment in the pathways involved in the automatic processing of FER.
Conclusions: ET and EEG findings indicate divergent development of the neurocognitive mechanisms of FER in individuals with ASD, which may further be modulated by certain self-regulatory or compensatory strategies. Implications for understanding the social brain in ASD, as well as future directions for the integration of ET and EEG methods are discussed.
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