【Objective】 To test the ability of the recognition of emotional expression in blended faces and gender discrimination of eyes and mouths by children with autism. 【Methods】 Thirty-two male children with autism and thirty-two typically developing children matched on developmental age and gender were selected.They were tested with the Emotional Expressions Recognition Software System developed in this research which took recognition accuracy rate and response time in different presentation manners as analysis indexes. 【Results】 1)The accuracy rates of emotional expression were significantly lower in children with autism than in typically developing[(58.0±15.6)%vs(78.4±13.5)%,t=5.4,P=0.000],the response time was delayed[(9 948.3±3 116.2)ms vs(5 617.0±1 362.9)ms,t=4.7,P=0.000].2)The accuracy rates of gender discrimination was significantly lower in children with autism than in typically developing[eye:(76.7 ±11.5)%vs(86.6 ±10.9)%,mouth:(66.2 ±12.8)%vs(73.1 ±10.7)%],the response time was delayed[eye:(4 138.7±542.0)ms vs(2 721.9±636.6)ms,mouth:(3 807.8±710.1)ms vs(2 836.5±619.9)ms]. 【Conclusions】 Children with autism are inclined to attend to the lower face when making judgments about emotional expressions;they can use information from eyes for gender discrimination,and do not appear to be superior to typically developing children at using mouth information to process gender information.
Key words
autism /
emotional expression /
facial gender discrimination
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