Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions.
Dominic A Trevisan, Marleis Bowering, Elina Birmingham
PMID 27895883WHAT IT FOUND
Higher alexithymic traits were linked to less emotional facial expression and more neutral expression in children with and without autism.
Autistic traits were not linked to expression overall, and diagnosis group differences were limited.
Key findings
01Higher alexithymic traits were associated with less negative expression (r = -.37, p = .030) and more neutral expression (r = .43, p = .012).
02Autistic traits did not add significant prediction to the model, while alexithymic traits did (F change = 15.842, p < .001, R2 change = .346).
03The ASD group had higher alexithymia scores than controls (M = 17.29 vs 8.41, t(32) = 2.97, p = .006), but the overall group difference in expression was not significant (p = .090).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, so group comparisons were underpowered and the findings may not apply to all children with autism. The study did not follow children over time and did not test whether alexithymia causes reduced facial expression. Facial expression was scored from videos using software that the authors say needs an extensive validation study. The video task may not show how expressive children are in everyday social interaction. Alexithymia was assessed only by parent report, so self-report was not available. The ASD group had average to above average IQ, so results may not extend to children with lower functioning. Autistic traits and alexithymic traits were correlated, which makes it hard to separate their contributions.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The supplied text gives no other conflict-of-interest statement.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that autism causes reduced facial expression. The study is small, only measured associations, and the group comparison did not show a significant overall expression difference.