Yes / Can adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) infer what happened to someone from their emotional response? Millikan has argued that in everyday life, others' emotions are most commonly used to work out the antecedents of behavior, an ability termed retrodictive mindreading. As those with ASD show difficulties interpreting others' emotions, we predicted that these individuals would have difficulty with retrodictive mindreading. Sixteen adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome and 19 typically developing adults viewed 21 video clips of people reacting to one of three gifts (chocolate, monopoly money, or a homemade novelty) and then inferred what gift the recipient received and the emotion expressed by that person. Participants' eye movements were recorded while they viewed the videos. Results showed that participants with ASD were only less accurate when inferring who received a chocolate or homemade gift. This difficulty was not due to lack of understanding what emotions were appropriate in response to each gift, as both groups gave consistent gift and emotion inferences significantly above chance (genuine positive for chocolate and feigned positive for homemade). Those with ASD did not look significantly less to the eyes of faces in the videos, and looking to the eyes did not correlate with accuracy on the task. These results suggest that those with ASD are less accurate when retrodicting events involving recognition of genuine and feigned positive emotions, and challenge claims that lack of attention to the eyes causes emotion recognition difficulties in ASD. / University of Nottingham, School of Psychology

Faces communicate a wealth of information, including cues to others’ internal emotional states. Face processing is often studied using static stimuli; however, in real life, faces are dynamic. The current project examines face detection and emotion recognition from isolated motion cues. Across two studies, facial motion is presented in point-light displays (PLDs), in which moving white dots against a black screen correspond to dynamic regions of the face. In Study 1, adults were asked to identify the upright facial motion of five basic emotional expressions (e.g., surprise) and five neutral non-rigid movements (e.g., yawning) versus inverted and scrambled distractors. Prior work with static stimuli finds that certain cues, including the addition of motion information, the spatial arrangement of elements, and the emotional significance of stimuli affect face detection. This study found significant effects involving each of these factors using facial PLDs. Notably, face detection was most accurate in response to face-like arrangements, and motion information was useful in response to unusual point configurations. These results suggest that similar processes underlie the processing of static face images and isolated facial motion cues. In Study 2, children and adults were asked to match PLDs of emotional expressions to their corresponding labels (e.g., match a smiling PLD with the word “happy”). Prior work with face images finds that emotion recognition improves with age, but the developmental trajectory depends critically on the emotion to be recognized. Emotion recognition in response to PLDs improved with age, and there were different trajectories across the five emotions tested. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the influence of motion information in face processing and emotion recognition, by demonstrating that there are similarities in how people process full-featured static faces and isolated facial motion cues in PLDs (which lack features). The finding that even young children can detect emotions from isolated facial motion indicates that features are not needed for making these types of social judgments. PLD stimuli hold promise for future interventions with atypically developing populations.

Etude de la dynamique temporelle de la catégorisation faciale depuis la détection d'un visage dans le champ visuel jusqu'a l'encodage d'une représentation individuelle du visage. Investigation de cette dynamique temporelle via l'électrophysiologie chez le sujet humain (potentiels évoqués). / Temporal dynamics of face visual categorization : an electrophysiological (event-related potentials) approach

This thesis examines the way in which meaningful facial signals (i.e., eye gaze and emotional facial expressions) influence the allocation of visual attention. These signals convey information about the likely imminent behaviour of the sender and are, in turn, potentially relevant to the behaviour of the viewer. It is already well established that different signals influence the allocation of attention in different ways that are consistent with their meaning. For example, direct gaze (i.e., gaze directed at the viewer) is considered both to draw attention to its location and hold attention when it arrives, whereas observing averted gaze is known to create corresponding shifts in the observer’s attention. However, the circumstances under which these effects occur are not yet understood fully. The first two sets of experiments in this thesis tested directly whether direct gaze is particularly difficult to ignore when the task is to ignore it, and whether averted gaze will shift attention when it is not relevant to the task. Results suggest that direct gaze is no more difficult to ignore than closed eyes, and the shifts in attention associated with viewing averted gaze are not evident when the gaze cues are task-irrelevant. This challenges the existing understanding of these effects. The remaining set of experiments investigated the role of gaze direction in the allocation of attention to emotional facial expressions. Without exception, previous work looking at this issue has measured the allocation of attention to such expressions when gaze is directed at the viewer. Results suggest that while the type of emotional expression (i.e., angry or happy) does influence the allocation of attention, the associated gaze direction does not, even when the participants are divided in terms of anxiety level (a variable known to influence the allocation of attention to emotional expressions). These findings are discussed in terms of how the social meaning of the stimulus can influence preattentive processing. This work also serves to highlight the need for general theories of visual attention to incorporate such data. Not to do so fundamentally risks misrepresenting the nature of attention as it operates out-with the laboratory setting.

Male mammals compete for reproductive access to females. Gaining and maintaining this access can be stressful and anxiety-provoking. In humans, anxiety and associated protective behaviors can manifest as jealousy. Physiological stress is likely to increase in relation to jealousy as it does with anxiety. Hypothetically, higher levels of anxiety and cortisol may indicate, and may even promote, strong territorial or jealous behavior. Chronically elevated cortisol has been shown to be deleterious to prefrontal and hippocampal neurons and result in emotional and stress-response dysregulation. In very anxious and jealous individuals, chronic stress activation could further promote these tendencies via emotional disinhibition. Cortisol production also related to vasopressin (AVP) levels and AVP has been shown to increase mate preference and territoriality. Furthermore, physiological measures may be more valid than self-report of less socially desirable behaviors such as jealousy and anxiety. As a preliminary study, we measured salivary cortisol, heart-rate, and blood pressure in relation to self-reported anxiety and jealousy in healthy men and women in response to threatening male faces paired with smiling female faces. Elevated anxiety positively predicted jealousy in men but not women. Anxiety and jealousy also predicted elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Cortisol levels in response to the threat task and in relation to jealousy approached statistical significance (ps < 0.07) and suggest the need for a larger sample size.

Etude de la dynamique temporelle de la catégorisation faciale depuis la détection d'un visage dans le champ visuel jusqu'a l'encodage d'une représentation individuelle du visage. Investigation de cette dynamique temporelle via l'électrophysiologie chez le sujet humain (potentiels évoqués). / Temporal dynamics of face visual categorization : an electrophysiological (event-related potentials) approach

The accurate integration of audio-visual emotion cues is critical for social interactions and requires efficient processing of facial cues. Gaze behavior of typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was measured via eye-tracking during the perception of dynamic audio-visual emotion (DAVE) stimuli. This study provides information about the regions of the face sampled during an emotion perception task that is relatively more complex than those used in previous studies, providing both bimodal (auditory and visual) and dynamic (biological motion) cues. Results indicated that the ASD group was less accurate at emotion detection and demonstrated less of a visual-affective bias than TD individuals. Both groups displayed similar fixation patterns across regions during the perception of congruent audio-visual stimuli. However, between-group analyses revealed that fixation patterns differed significantly by facial regions during the perception of both congruent and incongruent movies together. In addition, fixation duration to critical regions (i.e., face, core, eyes) was negatively correlated with measures of ASD symptomatology and social impairment. Findings suggest weaknesses in the early integration of audio-visual information, automatic perception of emotion, and efficient detection of affective conflict in individuals with ASD. Implications for future research and social skills intervention programs are discussed.

During normal development, face processing involves a gradual shift from a featurally oriented style to a mature configural style by adolescence. This shift may coincide with increased right hemispheric dominance for faces supporting configural processing. Previous studies suggest that individuals diagnosed with ASD continue to process faces using individual parts and features into adulthood. This continued bias may be due to deficits in configural processing abilities. The current study investigated measures of functional connectivity during featural and configural processing of faces in broad autism phenotype sibling (ASD-sibs) children compared to age, sex, and handedness matched normal developing (ND) controls and in children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder compared to ASD-matched ND controls. Results indicate that children with ASD and ASD-sibs were capable of performing configural processing tasks at similar performance levels to those of ND children. Additionally, patterns of functional network connectivity for configural processing in ASD-sibs were similar to those observed in ND controls. Few network-wide hemispheric differences emerged between groups. While behavioral performance and overall network-wide patterns of connectivity suggest a face processing network that is capable of supporting configural processing in ASD and ASD-sibs, abnormalities were observed in specific regions. The amygdala and fusiform face area showed fewer interactions with the rest of the face processing network in ASD children compared to ND during configural, but not featural processing. Additionally, hemispheric comparisons show greater differences between ASD and ND controls in the right fusiform face area. The ability of these regions to communicate with other regions in the face network could be important for social motivation and attention during configural processing. Interestingly, network connectivity in ASD children during passive viewing of faces, objects, and textures without featural or configural manipulations showed a more functionally integrated, and less segregated network with a lower “wiring cost” during non-face conditions compared to ND children. ASD-sibs may demonstrate a similar milder pattern.

La schizophrénie est un trouble psychiatrique complexe et hétérogène caractérisée par des symptômes positifs, les symptômes négatifs et des déficits cognitifs. Elle se caractérise également par des dysfonctionnements sociaux marqués, y compris des déficits dans la reconnaissance des visages. Outre des difficultés à reconnaître le visage d'autres personnes, les déficits de reconnaissance du propre visage ont également été décrits dans la schizophrénie. Notre propre visage est considéré comme un stimulus spécial, car il constitue une des caractéristiques physiques la plus distinctive d’un individu, en plus d'être une partie importante de notre identité. Par conséquent, l'objectif de cette thèse fut de mieux déterminer dans un premier temps les facteurs sous-tendant la spécificité de notre propre visage au regard des autres visages (familiers et étrangers) chez les individus non cliniques, ainsi que dans la schizophrénie, une pathologie mentale sévère altérant de nombreux domaines associés à l’identité. Quatre études ont été réalisées afin de répondre à ces deux objectifs principaux. Premièrement, une meta-analyse menée a pu mettre en évidence que l’avantage en terme de temps de réaction diminué lors du traitement de notre propre visage pourrait être mieux expliqué par un effet de familiarité ou de représentation plus stable de son propre visage plutôt que par des caratéritiques uniques et spécifiques associées à notre propre visage. En revanche, la représentation du propre visage semble être moins stable dans la schizophrénie et spécialement sensible aux contraintes de temps. De plus, nos résultats ont également montré que lorsque les patients regardent leur propre image dans un miroir, ceux-ci rapportent plus souvent des expériences anormales, notamment en lien avec la symptomatologie positive. Ainsi dans leur ensemble, nos résultats indiquent que les patients ayant reçu un diagnostic de schizophrénie sont capables de reconnaître leur visage, bien qu'ils semblent posséder une représentation plus instable de leur propre visage entraînant un sentiment d'étrangeté. / Schizophrenia is a complex and heterogeneous psychiatric characterized by positive symptoms, negative symptoms, cognitive deficits and also motor abnormalities. The disease is also characterized by marked social dysfunctions including deficits in face recognition. Besides difficulties in recognize other people’s face, self-face recognition deficits have been also described in schizophrenia. Self-face has been considered a special stimulus since it is individuals' most distinctive physical feature, besides of being an important part of our identity. Therefore, the aim of the present thesis is to further understand self-face specialness and self-face processing in healthy controls, but more importantly in schizophrenia disorder. Four studies were performed in order to respond to this main object. In the one hand, the studies found that self-face processing advantage could be better explained by a familiarity effect or a more stable representation of one's own face rather than self-specialness in healthy controls. In the other hand, the representation of the one's own face seems to be less stable in schizophrenia and especially sensible to time constraint. When no time constraint was imposed, they were capable to recognize their own face under perceptual ambiguity in photographs. Moreover, our results also showed when looking at their own image in the mirror patients reported more often abnormal experiences. All together, our results indicated that patients are capable to recognize their face and discriminate it from other’s people face, although they might possess a more unstable representation of their own face resulting in a feeling of strangeness.

De par la richesse et la nature des informations qu’il véhicule, le visage joue un rôle essentiel dans les interactions sociales. Les difficultés que manifestent dès le plus jeune âge les personnes présentant un Trouble du Spectre de l’Autisme (TSA) sur le plan de l’interaction sociale ont conduit à s’intéresser aux modalités de traitement du visage dans cette population. Les travaux de cette thèse ont pour but d’explorer le traitement du visage chez les jeunes enfants avec un TSA, âgés de 24 à 60 mois, au moyen de la technique de suivi du regard. Dans la première étude, nous montrons que les jeunes enfants avec un TSA, comme les enfants typiques, sont sensibles à la visagéité d’un objet, ce qui suggère un traitement de la configuration de premier ordre. Ce résultat suggère que la nature des représentations faciales dans les TSA n’est pas qualitativement différente de celle des personnes typiques. Dans la seconde étude, nous testons la présence d’un biais du regard vers l’hémichamp visuel gauche en réponse à un visage présenté en vision centrale. Les résultats de cette étude indiquent que les jeunes enfants avec un TSA ne présentent pas ce biais du regard, ce qui pourrait refléter une altération de la dominance hémisphérique droite pour le traitement du visage dans les TSA. Enfin, dans la troisième étude, l’analyse du parcours visuel des jeunes enfants avec un TSA sur les visages révèle une exploration atypique concentrée au niveau de la région des yeux. Dans l’ensemble, ces études suggèrent que même si les enfants avec un TSA traitent les visages à partir de leur configuration, la manière d’y parvenir pourrait être différente. Des études futures devront spécifier les mécanismes du traitement configural du visage dans les TSA. / Faces are important for social interactions as they convey important information about social environment. Impairment in social interactions is one of the core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and has been related to atypical face processing. Here, we investigated face processing in preschool children with ASD using eye-tracking methodology. In the first study, we showed that young children with ASD, just like typically developing children are sensitive to face-like objects suggesting that processing first order configuration is intact in ASD. According to these results, the nature of facial representation might be qualitatively similar between groups. In the second study, we tested the presence of a left gaze bias in response to faces presented at central vision. A lack of left gaze bias was found in young children with ASD, reflecting atypical right hemispheric lateralization for face processing. Finally, the third study analyzed the visual scanning of static faces and showed an abnormal exploration pattern limited to the eyes. Overall, these studies argue for the presence of configural face processing in preschoolers with ASD despite differences in strategy from typically developing children. Futures studies will have to specify the mechanisms underlying atypical configural face processing in ASD.