Cortical responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions generalize across stimuli, and are sensitive to task-relevance, in adults with and without Autism.

ABSTRACT: Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) report difficulties extracting meaningful information from dynamic and complex social cues, like facial expressions. The nature and mechanisms of these difficulties remain unclear. Here we tested whether that difficulty can be traced to the pattern of activity in "social brain" regions, when viewing dynamic facial expressions. In two studies, adult participants (male and female) watched brief videos of a range of positive and negative facial expressions, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 1: ASD n = 16, control n = 21; Study 2: ASD n = 22, control n = 30). Patterns of hemodynamic activity differentiated among facial emotional expressions in left and right superior temporal sulcus, fusiform gyrus, and parts of media

SUBMITTER: Kliemann D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5988954 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature