On the trail of facial processing in autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

To investigate the difficulties in communication, socialization abilities, and emotion perception deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), we propose the project SARA. Its main goal is to assess how abstracted emotional facial expressions influence the categorization of the emotions by children and adolescents with highfunctioning ASD. This paper focuses on the first pilot study where an adapted version of the Dynamic Emotional Categorization Test (DECT) was implemented. The results support the validity of the emotional facial animations, which is confirmed by the low performance of subjects with high-functioning ASD when categorizing emotions, in comparison with their peers without ASD.