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

Overview

abstract

  • 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.

publication date

  • December 21, 2018

Research

keywords

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Emotions
  • Facial Expression

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85060855290

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.beth.2018.12.004

PubMed ID

  • 31208691

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 50

issue

  • 4