Research

There is research available detailing the impairments in facial and emotional processing and resulting neurological differences are explained. (Pierce, 2001) found weak or no activation in the fusiform gyrus as well as significantly reduced activation in the amygdala, inferior occipital gyrus, and superior temporal sucus during a face perception task. (Durelle, 2004) revealed facial identities are determined in a different way in children with ASD versus typically developing children. Children with autism used high spatial frequency and the right inferior temporal gyrus which supports the weak central coherence theory of a feature based, local processing style. Typically developing children and adults use configural information which is a low spatial frequency processing. The authors concluded that children with autism processed faces like objects. They use a feature-based strategy instead of a global processing strategy. Finally, research indicates a specific deficit in the dorsal pathway of children since they are using the high spatial frequency processing.

(George and Conty, 2008) concluded that direct gaze perception is associated with increased fusiform, N170, and M170 responses in seen faces. Additionally, (Sasson, 2006) reported evidence of abnormalities in the amygdala, which is a brain region involved with assessing the emotional significance of a situation. Children with autism have enlarged amygdalas. The amygdala activates less for children with ASD when making judgments about facial affect. (Dawashima and Sugiura, 1999) found the left amygdala plays a role in interpretation of eye gaze and the right amygdala activation increases when another person's gaze is directed toward him. This supports the belief that the amygdala is involved in interpreting social signals from the face. Overall, these findings indicate that research has identified problems with facial and emotional processing and clear neurological differences are revealed during these processing tasks.

Durelle, C., Rondan, C., Gepner, B., Tardif, C. (2004). Spatial Frequency and Face Processing in Children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, (34)2, 199-210.

George, N., Conty, L. (2008) Facing the gaze of others. Clinical Neurophysiology, 38, 197-207.

Kuwashima, R., Sugiura, M., Kato, T., Nakamura, A., Hatano, K., Ito, K., et al. The human amygdala plays an important role in gaze monitoring. Brain, (1999), 122, 779-783.

Pierce, K., Muller, R.-A., Ambrose, J., Allen, G., Courchesne, E. Face processing occurs outside the fusiform 'face area' in autism: evidence from functional MRI. Brain, (2001), 124, 2059-2073.

Sasson, N. (2006). The Development of Face Processing in Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, (2006), (36)3, 381-394.

Daily Function

Emotion and face processing impacts daily function dramatically. Both of these components are key in every person to person interaction. Each time a social interaction occurs verbal gestures, eye contact, non verbal gestures, prediction of emotion and more exist in a transaction. According to the Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescense, social referencing is the first step to be able to recognize emotions. Social referencing is built upon in order to develop positive, mature social skills.

In many of the child's occupations including playmate, friend, sibiling, son/daughter, student, grandchild, and employee it is imperative to process facial information and emotions in order to build the relatationship. If a child has continual negative social interactions due to impairments with face processing and emotion, it can be a cyclic event. Failed attempts as a child could lead to low self-esteem, poor confidence, and uneasiness as a teenager and an adult. A child has more considerations and assistance than a teenager or adult has available. However, the demands are greater in high school, college, and with employement. (Miller-Kuhaneck) Specifically, an employee who does not make eye contact with his/her superior could be viewed as disrespectful and treated negatively. The severity of ignorning this domain in childhood impairs the overall success in adulthood.

Challenges in Emotion Understanding

The challenges our children with ASD have with emotional understanding are that they don't understand rules of social interaction, challenges with generalizing information and predicting social behavior. This process can be confusing and unsuccessful and can lead to teasing or bullying from peers. Social acceptance is a basic desire. A child with ASD displays deficits in understanding how their behavior effects others. Unfortunately, all these negative experiences can create loneliness and some of these children show an increased risk for developing clinical depression in adulthood. (Miller-Kuhaneck)

Children with ASD also have impairments with facial processing. Children with autism exhibit impairments with a variety of facial processing tasks including visual scanning, memory of faces, and affect recognition. It is believed that individuals with autism process facial information differently than the typical population. Keller and Zach, 1993 revealed that lack of early eye contact, even in the 1st month of infancy, can lead to maladaptive relationships. Gaze direction signals interest and provides essential information about other's emotional states. (George, Conty, 2008)

Facial processing and emotional processing are inter-related because a child receives visual information from the face and body in order to appropriately process emotional information. For example, if a typically developing child was smiling but told his friend (child with ASD) to get away the child with ASD could easily misinterpret the information if he was unable to process facial information. He may perceive this as a mean comment and react on that feeling. In turn, this could create tension in a peer relationship. Due to the poor interpretation of social signals a child is challenged to respond appropriately.

Overview of Emotion and Face Processing

Children with autism exhibit a chronic impairment in the processing of social and emotional information including abnormalities with eye gaze and in expression and comprehension of facial emotions (Sasson, 2006). Face processing is the ability to correctly interpret visual information about other people in our environment and is an emergent and developing skill. Emotion processing is the ability to anticipate, predict, and read behaviors of others. (Sasson, 2006)

The theory of weak central coherence describes a cognitive style based on local processing, focusing on details and individuals have problems integrating the whole (Frith,1989). This would account for a child's ability to recognize parts of faces and not take into account the entire face, or the global picture (Duruelle, Rondan, 2004). Additionally, the "experience expectant" model of visual development (Nelson, 2001) explains that humans enter the world prepared to deal with human faces but only through exposure to faces does perceptual and cortical specialization occur (Sasson, 2006). The impaired ability to interact with others is often explained by the theory of mind which is understanding that other peole have thoughts, beliefs, and feelings separate from oneself (Miller-Kuhaneck).

After reviewing the research it is clear that facial and emotional processing are complicated, having many factors to consider. This is an enormous issue related to children with autism. Learning about this subject revealed to me the role OTs and SLPs (tell me if I am overstating my bounds regarding SLPs) can have in addressing the occupation of social interaction with peers. A goal of this project is to enhance learning for myself as well as alerting and educating classmates to the need to address these issues. This appears to be an area under addressed by clinicians.

Sasson, N. (2006). The Devolpment of Face Processing in Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 381-394.