Differences Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults in the Recognition of Anger from Facial Motion Remain after Controlling for Alexithymia.
Connor T Keating, Dagmar S Fraser, Sophie Sowden and 1 others
PMID 34047905WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults struggled to recognize anger from normal-speed facial motion compared to controls.
This difference remained after matching for alexithymia. Alexithymia did not affect accuracy scores but led to higher intensity ratings for all emotions.
Key findings
01Autistic adults showed reduced recognition of angry facial motion at the normal 100% spatial and speed level compared to non-autistic controls.
02Alexithymia was not a significant predictor of emotion recognition accuracy, but autistic traits remained a significant predictor even after accounting for demographic variables.
03While alexithymia did not change accuracy, individuals with higher alexithymia scores gave higher intensity ratings for both correct and incorrect emotions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 22 of the 31 autistic participants completed the ADOS-2 observational assessment due to pandemic restrictions, and only 16 of those met the diagnostic threshold, suggesting the group may have had lower autistic trait intensity than typical populations. Alexithymia was measured using a self-report scale (TAS-20), which some researchers argue is problematic because individuals with alexithymia may have difficulty accurately reporting their internal states. The study used degraded point-light stimuli, so findings may not generalize to full-face video expressions with skin tone and shading cues.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the Medical Research Council and the European Research Council. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of accuracy difference as evidence that alexithymia has no impact on emotion processing. Alexithymia was associated with higher intensity ratings for both correct and incorrect emotions, suggesting it affects the magnitude of perceived emotion rather than the identification of the emotion itself.