Theories of ASD atypical emotional processing Flashcards
Theory of mind (ToM)
Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand the cognitive state (thoughts, desires, intentions etc.) of other people. One of the original demonstrations ToM was though a ‘false belief’ task formulated by Wimmer and Perner (1983). In order for individuals to successfully complete this task, they would have the ability to recognize that another persons belief is based on their knowledge of world and is perception may differ from other people and from reality (Wimmer & Perner, 1983). Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985) predicted that ‘autistic children’ would lack ToM and adapted Wimmer and Perner (1983) original paradigm to compare autism children with two control populations (typically developing children and children with Downs syndrome).
Even though the autistic children were older than that of the controls, they failed to comprehend the cognitive processes (ToM) of others. Thus, demonstrating a deficit specific to autism (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985).
ToM research has since been developed in many directions, especially for adults with ASD. For example, Happé (1994) developed ‘the strange situation’ in which participants were required to provide a theory in response to a story. Happé discovered that a minority of individuals with ASD would pass ToM tests first time yet still displayed deficits in the social domain. However, social deficits returned once tests were changed into adult relevant naturalistic material (Happé, 1994). ToM tasks have since branched from stories to visual (Reading the Mind in the Eyes) task, in which participants view a photograph of eyes and are asked ‘what the person is thinking or feeling?’ (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, & Hill, 2001). The same concept was applied to an auditory (Reading the Mind in the Voice) (Rutherford, Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2002) task. These studies provide further support in the notion that people with ASD experience a difficulty in extracting social cues through all domains.
The Central Coherence theory of ASD
The central coherence theory proposes that ASD is by characterised unique way of cognitive processing, which is characterised by an orientation towards detail within a particular aspect or part of an object (Happé, 2005). In contrast, neuro-typical (NT) individuals adapt a global processing referred to as a central coherence allowing a broader perspective on experiences (Frith & Happé, 1994). However, the central coherence theory was established largely to describe the outline of cognitive weaknesses in ASD, thus not intended to describe emotional and social-communicative deficits in ASD.
Executive function theory of ASD
An executive function deficit has also been theorized to explain emotional difficulties in ASD. Executive functions are a cluster of cognitive processes that regulate and manage other cognitive and affective processes (e.g., problem solving, inhibition, impulse control, flexibility). Some research proposes a link between the effects of emotion on executive function (Pessoa, 2009; Mueller, 2011). Therefore, an executive function deficit is not a satisfactory explanation for emotional difficulties in ASD.
The amygdala theory of ASD
The amygdala has been proposed to be a component of the social brain that is responsible for the facilitation of socialization (Brothers, 1990). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research found no amygdala activation in ASD in comparison to controls whilst making mentalisitic inferences of the emotion of a person through a snapshot of their eyes (Baron-Cohen, Ring, Bullmore, Wheelwright, Ashwin, Williams, 2000). Damage to the amygdala has been discovered to impair emotional recognition in facial expressions (Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio & Damasio, 1994) and emotional vocalizations (Scott, Young, Calder, Hellawell, Aggleton & Johnson, 1997). Thus leading to the conclusion that difficulties in emotional understanding in ASD is the result of amygdala abnormality which is one of numerous neural regions that have been discovered to be abnormal in ASD. Research has found a link between the amygdala and deficit in the emotional comprehension especially negative emotions in photographic stimuli (Ashwin, Chapman, Colle, Baron-Cohen, 2006) and the attentional blink paradigm (Corden, Chilvers, Skuse, 2008).
Mirror neuron theory of ASD
Mirror neurons (MNs) are visual motor neurons that increase in activity (fires) when a person (animal) executes an action and observes another person (animal) perform an identical action. Researchers have discovered trough various neuroscience techniques that MNs are dysfunctional and show a reduced/suppression of neuronal firing in ADS (Oberman, Hubbard, McCleery, Altschuler, Ramachandran, Pineda, 2005). Evidence of emotional deficit has been found to support the mirror neuron theory of ASD when individuals with ASD complete tasks involving emotional reciprocated imitation (Dapretto, Davies, Pfeifer, Scott, Sigman, Bookheimer & Iacoboni, 2006; Perkins, Stokes, McGillivray, Bittar, 2010). Conversely, many researchers have argued the validity of the mirror neuron theory of ASD (Fan, Decety, Yang, Liu & Cheng, 2010). A dysfunction in MN has been postulated to have a direct effect on empathy (Shamay-Tsoory, Aharon-Peretz & Perry, 2009)
The empathy theory of ASD
Research has found that individuals with ASD experience less empathy (the ability understand, feel and sympathize another persons experience) towards another and show less desire to help elevate the persons stress through intervention; in comparison to the personal levels of distress experienced by those with ASD (Minio-Paluello, Lombardo, Chakrabarti, Wheelwright, Baron-Cohen, 2009). However, opposing research suggests that those with ASD struggle to comprehend other peoples’ perspectives, but this is a difficulty in ToM rather than a lack of empathy. In general, those with ASD experience similar empathy than controls and higher levels of personal distress (Rogers, Dziobek, Hassenstab, Wolf, Convit, 2007). It has been discovered that females with ASD are more empathetic than males with ASD (Baron-Cohen, 2009).
The Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) Theory of ASD
(E-S) suggests that people may be classified on the basis of their capabilities along two independent dimensions, empathizing (E) and systemizing (S). These capabilities may be inferred through tests that measure someone’s Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Systemizing Quotient (SQ). Five different “brain types” can be observed among the population based on the scores, which should correlate with differences at the neural level. In the E-S theory, autism and Asperger syndrome are associated with below-average empathy and average or above-average systemizing. The E-S theory has been extended into the Extreme Male Brain theory, which suggests that people with an autism spectrum condition are more likely to have an “Extreme Type S” brain type, corresponding with above-average systemizing but challenged empathy (see the next section).
The empathizing–systemizing (E-S) theory argues two factors are needed to explain the social and nonsocial features of the condition. This is related to other cognitive theories such as the weak central coherence theory and the executive dysfunction theory. The E-S theory is also extended to the extreme male brain theory as a way of understanding the biased sex ratio in autism (Baron-Cohen, 2009).
Sensory Dysfunction Theory Of ASD
Another factor that may influence the development of emotion recognition and contribute to the observed variability in emotion recognition skills in ASD is sensory dysfunction, which can be marked at early stages of development (Kern et al. 2006). Karmiloff- Smith (2009) proposed that sensory or attentional abnormalities, present in early infancy, can result in a diverse range of later occurring behavioural abnormalities. In the study by Kern et al. (2006) abnormalities in both auditory and visual modalities were noted and these may impact on the autistic infants’ ability to
learn about facial and vocal expressions of emotion. Although the results from the study suggested that sensory difficulties abate with age, the negative effects of early impoverished interpersonal interactions may not be easily compensated at later stages of development.
The Extreme Male Brain (EMB) theory of ASD
The EMB theory suggests that those with ASD experience an impairment in empathy which is the result of sex differences within the brain and are characterized by an exaggerated typical male neuroanatomy that is possibly the result of elevated levels of Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. rather than gender differences (Baron-Cohen, 2005; Auyeung, Baron-Cohen, Ashwin, Knickmeyer, Taylor, Hackett, 2009).
The social motivation theory of ASD/Reward And Punishment Learning theory of ASD
Difficulties in socially motivated behaviour are considered to result from a lack of perceived reward response in individuals with ASD (Schmitz, Rubia, van Amelsvoort, Daly, Smith, & Murphy 2008). The comprehension of emotions is considered linked to the significance of the person, object or experience (Frijda, 2010). An distorted sensitivity to the way in which a particular situation is perceived leads to a difficulty in estimating the saliency hence the emotional connotation. Studies of motivation and processing of reward and punishment in ASD suggest a deficit in the processing of reward (Scott-Van Zeeland, Dapretto, Ghahremani, Poldrack & Bookheimer, 2010). Moreover, neuronal response to reward in the left anterior cingulate cortex ACC was discovered to correlate with methods of social communication in ASD (Schmitz, Rubia, van Amelsvoort, Daly, Smith, & Murphy 2008).
Alexithymia theory of ASD
Alexithymia is a disorder characterized by a dysfunction in the ability to understand and articulate one’s own emotional arousal. Individuals with alexithymia may be aware of a physiological emotional response but unaware of the interpretation of the emotion they are experiencing (Nemiah, Freyberger & Sifneos, 1976). Though the application of neuroscience techniques, alexithymia has been postulated for the absence of empathy (Moriguchi, Decety, Ohnishi, Maeda, Matsuda, & Komaki, 2007; Bird, Silani, Brindley, Singer, Frith & Frith, 2006). The prevalence of alexithymia in the general population is estimated at 10%, however co-morbidity levels in alexithymia rise in psychopathology such as post -traumatic stress disorders and anorexia nervosa (Berthoz, Pouga & Wessa 2011). The prevalence of alexithymia increases dramatically to 40-65% of individuals with ASD (Hill, Berthoz & Frith, 2004). Despite the comorbidity of alexithymia and ASD, neither will be taken into consideration on diagnosis of the other (Bird & Cook, 2013).
Research has shown that the empathy difficulties related to ASD are due to high comorbidity between alexithymia and ASD in opposed social deficit Geoffrey (Bird, Silani, Brindley, White, Frith & Singer, 2010). Interestingly, research has found that individuals with ASD who displayed no symptoms of Alexithymia had normal empathic responses in comparison to individuals with both ASD and alexithymia displayed significant deficits in empathy (Bird, Press & Richardson, 2011). The severity of ASD has been postulated to be foundamental reason beyond a deficit in emotion recognition (). However, in a study that compared ASD severity with Alexithymia on facial perception difficulties, it was argued that alexithymia correlates with the correct application of expression attributes whilst ASD severity was unrelated. It was further theorized that the compromised ability to comprehend morphed facial expressions is not a by-product of severe alexithymia but rather a deficit in understanding intact sensory images. Thus concluding that emotional deficits of ASD are a result of comorbid alexithymia (Cook, Brewer, Shah & Bird, 2013).
Inconsistency across research
Many researchers have discovered that there is an inconsistency in emotional comprehension across the autistic population as many individuals perform similar to neurotypicals (Uljarevic M, Hamilton; Ashwin C, Chapman E, Colle L, Baron-Cohen, 2006). There have been multiple suggestions for this lack of consistency across results. One argument is the inconsistency across studies is the heterogeneity of the severity of ASD. However, it is unlikely that this is plausible theory as a deficit in social, communication and interaction is a core feature of ASD, therefore differences severity of ASD will not result in differences in severity if this particular impairment (Harms, Martin & Wallace, 2010). Additionally, heterogeneity of IQ within ASD has also been speculated to vary the recognition of emotions conveyed in facial expressions (Mazefsky & Oswald, 2007). Variation in IQ should not influence emotional recognition as if the majority of individuals with higher IQ could formulate a coping mechanism to facilitate social interactions and emotional understanding, there would be far fewer people diagnosed with ASD (Harms, Martin & Wallace, 2010). It has been postulated that IQ has a stronger influence in emotional recognition in childhood, thus low IQ in childhood results in a greater deficit in emotional recognition (Dyck, Piek, Hay, Smith & Hallmayer, 2006).
