title: Intact mirror mechanisms for automatic facial emotions in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: It has been suggested that an early deficit in the human mirror neuron system (MNS) is an important feature of autism. Recent findings related to simple hand and finger movements do not support a general dysfunction of the MNS in autism. Studies investigating facial actions (e.g., emotional expressions) have been more consistent, however, mostly relied on passive observation tasks. We used a new variant of a compatibility task for the assessment of automatic facial mimicry responses that allowed for simultaneous control of attention to facial stimuli. We used facial electromyography in 18 children and adolescents with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 18 typically developing controls (TDCs). We observed a robust compatibility effect in ASD, that is, the execution of a facial expression was facilitated if a congruent facial expression was observed. Time course analysis of RT distributions and comparison to a classic compatibility task (symbolic Simon task) revealed that the facial compatibility effect appeared early and increased with time, suggesting fast and sustained activation of motor codes during observation of facial expressions. We observed a negative correlation of the compatibility effect with age across participants and in ASD, and a positive correlation between self-rated empathy and congruency for smiling faces in TDC but not in ASD. This pattern of results suggests that basic motor mimicry is intact in ASD, but is not associated with complex social cognitive abilities such as emotion understanding and empathy. Autism Res 2017, 10: 298-310. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychology Section, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany.|Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM 3), Research Center Jülich, Germany.|Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-Brain), Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schulte-Rüther
authors.affiliation: Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Otte
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychology Section, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany.|Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-Brain), Germany.
authors.forename: Kübra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adigüzel
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychology Section, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Firk
authors.affiliation: Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-Brain), Germany.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herpertz-Dahlmann
authors.affiliation: Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Iring
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychology Section, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany.|Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM 3), Research Center Jülich, Germany.|Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-Brain), Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Konrad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004576:Electromyography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: autism; electromyography; facial emotions; imitation; mirror neuron system; perception action compatibility