title: Body expressions of emotion do not trigger fear contagion in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Although there is evidence of emotion perception deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research on this topic has been mostly confined to perception of emotions in faces. Using behavioral measures and 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined whether such deficits extend to the perception of bodily expressed emotions. We found that individuals with ASD, in contrast to neurotypical (NT) individuals, did not exhibit a differential pattern of brain activation to bodies expressing fear as compared with emotionally neutral bodies. ASD and NT individuals showed similar patterns of activation in response to bodies engaged in emotionally neutral actions, with the exception of decreased activation in the inferior frontal cortex and the anterior insula in ASD. We discuss these findings in relation to possible abnormalities in a network of cortical and subcortical mechanisms involved in social orienting and emotion contagion. Our data suggest that emotion perception deficits in ASD may be due to compromised processing of the emotional component of observed actions.
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Nouchine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hadjikhani
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: Dara S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Manoach
authors.forename: Paulami
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Naik
authors.forename: Josh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Kelli
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dominick
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hoge
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van den Stock
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tager Flusberg
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Gelder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D019260:Expressed Emotion / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007697:Kinesics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception