title: Communication deficits and avoidance of angry faces in children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Understanding how emotional faces are processed is important to help characterize the social deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined: (i) whether attention is modulated by emotional facial expression; (ii) the time course of the attentional preferences (short vs. long stimulus presentation rates); and (iii) the association between attentional biases and autistic symptomatology.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a dot-probe experiment with emotional faces (happy, sad, and angry). The sample was composed of ASD children without additional language and/or intellectual impairments (n=29) and age-matched Typically Developing (TD) children (n=29).
  
  
  RESULTS
  When compared to the TD group, the ASD group showed an attentional bias away from angry faces at long presentation rates. No differences between groups were found for happy or sad faces. Furthermore, correlational analyses showed that the higher avoidance of angry faces, the greater are the social communication difficulties of ASD children. The attentional bias away from angry faces may be an underlying mechanism of social dysfunction in ASD. We discuss the implications of these findings for current theories of emotional processing in ASD.
authors.affiliation: Health Research Institute La Fe, Av. de Fernando Abril Martorell, 106, 46026 Valencia, Spain; University of Valencia, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, Valencia 46010, Spain. Electronic address: ana.garcia-blanco@uv.es.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: García-Blanco
authors.affiliation: Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital, Ctra. Madrid-Cartagena, s/n, 30120 El Palmar, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López-Soler
authors.affiliation: Health Research Institute La Fe, Av. de Fernando Abril Martorell, 106, 46026 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Máximo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vento
authors.affiliation: University of Castilla-La Mancha, Plaza La Universidad, 3, 02071 Albacete, Spain.
authors.forename: María Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: García-Blanco
authors.affiliation: Health Research Institute La Fe, Av. de Fernando Abril Martorell, 106, 46026 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Belén
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gago
authors.affiliation: University of Valencia, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, Valencia 46010, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perea
mesh_terms: D000786:Anger; D001288:Attention; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002648:Child; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Attentional biases; Autism spectrum disorder; Childhood; Dot-probe task; Emotional faces