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Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Pelphrey, KA; Morris, JP; McCarthy, G; Labar, KS
Published in: Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
June 2007

Despite elegant behavioral descriptions of abnormalities for processing emotional facial expressions and biological motion in autism, identification of the neural mechanisms underlying these abnormalities remains a critical and largely unmet challenge. We compared brain activity with dynamic and static facial expressions in participants with and without high-functioning autism using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and three classes of face stimuli-emotion morphs (fearful and angry), identity morphs and static images (fearful, angry and neutral). We observed reduced activity in the amygdala (AMY) and fusiform gyrus (FFG) to dynamic emotional expressions in people with autism. There was also a lack of modulation by dynamic compared with static emotional expressions of social brain regions including the AMY, posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) region and FFG. We observed equivalent emotion and identity morph-evoked activity in participants with and without autism in a region corresponding to the expected location of the more generally motion-sensitive area MT or V5. We conclude that dysfunctions in key components of the human face processing system including the AMY, FFG and posterior STS region are present in individuals with high-functioning autism, and this dysfunction might contribute to the deficits in processing emotional facial expressions.

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Published In

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

ISSN

1749-5016

Publication Date

June 2007

Volume

2

Issue

2

Start / End Page

140 / 149

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Social Identification
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Facial Expression
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

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Pelphrey, K. A., Morris, J. P., McCarthy, G., & Labar, K. S. (2007). Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2(2), 140–149. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsm010
Pelphrey, Kevin A., James P. Morris, Gregory McCarthy, and Kevin S. Labar. “Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism.Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2, no. 2 (June 2007): 140–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsm010.
Pelphrey KA, Morris JP, McCarthy G, Labar KS. Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 2007 Jun;2(2):140–9.
Pelphrey, Kevin A., et al. “Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism.Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2007, pp. 140–49. Epmc, doi:10.1093/scan/nsm010.
Pelphrey KA, Morris JP, McCarthy G, Labar KS. Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 2007 Jun;2(2):140–149.
Journal cover image

Published In

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

ISSN

1749-5016

Publication Date

June 2007

Volume

2

Issue

2

Start / End Page

140 / 149

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Social Identification
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Facial Expression
  • Experimental Psychology