30021
Psychophysiological Processing of Emotions in Individuals Varying in Autistic Traits and Social Anxiety
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit differences in emotional processing compared to non-ASD individuals. Similarly, individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) also show differences in emotional processing than those without SAD. These processing differences are thought to be associated with differences in brain structures and in connectivity between brain regions related to face processing and social cognition. Because ASD and SAD are co-morbid conditions, examining how traits related to ASD and SAD uniquely predict the neural processing of emotional stimuli can help to disambiguate the shared and distinct contributions that traits related to these two conditions can have on emotion processing.
Objectives:
This study aimed to evaluate differences in emotional face processing based on varying degrees of self-reported autistic behaviors and social anxiety. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to assess early neural processing directed at emotional faces with the goal of examining the distinct relationships between traits related to autism and social anxiety and the neural processing of specific emotions.
Methods:
Fifty-three individuals (26 males; Mage = 19.88 years) completed an oddball task in which participants identified a face depicting an emotional expression amongst a series of faces displaying neutral expressions. Participants completed two blocks of 300 trials consisting of mostly neutral faces with 15% oddball pictures displaying emotions (i.e., happy, angry, surprise, and fear). Each face was presented for 1000ms with an intertrial interval between 1000-1500ms. Participants pressed a key as quickly as possible when they identified a face depicting an emotion. In addition, participants completed the Autism Quotient Scale (AQ) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI-23). EEG activity was recorded and ERPs were quantified between 50 and 150ms at parietal electrodes (P1), between 150 and 250ms at parietal electrodes (P2), between 175 and 350ms at frontal electrodes (N2), and between 300 and 650ms at parietal electrodes (P3); see Figure 1.
Results:
The SPAI was correlated with P1 amplitude to happy faces, r = .58, p = .040, N2 amplitude to fearful faces, r = .54, p = .048, and P3 amplitude to angry faces, r = .48, p = .033. Scores on the SPAI (M = 20.90, SD = 9.87) and AQ (M = 16.89, SD = 8.66) were significantly correlated with one another, r = .42, p = .017. In order to assess the distinct contribution of SPAI controlling for AQ, regression analyses were performed. Results revealed that P3 amplitudes to angry faces were significantly predicted by the SPAI, β = .629, p = .040, when controlling for AQ, as demonstrated in Figure 2. For the other analyses, controlling for AQ reduced the effect of the SPAI on ERP amplitude.
Conclusions:
Together, these findings indicate that social anxiety traits distinctly predict the neural processing of certain emotions when controlling for autistic traits. These findings may contribute to our understanding of the social cognitive processes underlying the impaired identification and interpretation of emotional facial expressions in socially anxious and autistic individuals, which is crucial for developing successful interpersonal communication interventions.