Group Differences in Facial Emotion Expression in Autism: Evidence for the Utility of Machine Classification.

Effective social communication relies, in part, on accurate nonverbal expression of emotion. To evaluate the nature of facial emotion expression (FEE) deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we compared 20 youths with ASD to a sample of typically developing (TD) youth (n = 20) using a machine-based classifier of FEE. Results indicate group differences in FEE for overall accuracy across emotions. In particular, a significant group difference in accuracy of FEE was observed when participants were prompted by a video of a human expressing an emotion, F(2, 36) = 4.99, p = .032, η2 = .12. Specifically, youth with ASD made significantly more errors in FEE relative to TD youth. Findings support continued refinement of machine-based approaches to assess and potentially remediate FEE impairment in youth with ASD.

Task Dependency When Evaluating Association Between Facial Emotion Recognition and Facial Emotion Expression in Children with ASD.

The impact of facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits on facial emotion expression (FEE) during interaction with a novel computerized system was investigated in children with ASD (n = 20), in comparison to typically developing (TD) peers (n = 20). Although there was not clear evidence of impaired FEE, children with ASD showed more atypical FEE. In children with ASD, better FER predicted better FEE when the participants were asked to express a labeled emotion (t(18) = - 2.75, p = .01, d = 1.24). The stronger relationship between FER and FEE in children with ASD, relative to controls, suggests that intervention targeting social communication deficits might have maximal effect when both processes are considered.