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FACIAL EXPRESSION PROCESSING IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER AS A FUNCTION OF ALEXITHYMIA: AN EYE MOVEMENT STUDY
Title
FACIAL EXPRESSION PROCESSING IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER AS A FUNCTION OF ALEXITHYMIA: AN EYE MOVEMENT STUDY.
Creator
Escobar, Brian, Hong, Sang Wook, Florida Atlantic University, Department of Psychology, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Abstract/Description
The perception and interpretation of faces provides individuals with a wealth of knowledge that enables them to navigate their social environments more successfully. Prior research has hypothesized that the decreased facial expression recognition (FER) abilities observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be better explained by comorbid alexithymia, the alexithymia hypothesis. The present study sought to further examine the alexithymia hypothesis by collecting data from 59 participants and...
Show moreThe perception and interpretation of faces provides individuals with a wealth of knowledge that enables them to navigate their social environments more successfully. Prior research has hypothesized that the decreased facial expression recognition (FER) abilities observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be better explained by comorbid alexithymia, the alexithymia hypothesis. The present study sought to further examine the alexithymia hypothesis by collecting data from 59 participants and examining FER performance and eye movement patterns for ASD and neurotypical (NT) individuals while controlling for alexithymia severity. Eye movement-related differences and similarities were examined via eye tracking in conjunction with statistical and machine-learning-based pattern classification analysis. In multiple different classifying conditions, where the classifier was fed 1,718 scanpath images (either at spatial, spatial-temporal, or spatial temporal-ordinal levels) for high-alexithymic ASD, high-alexithymicvi NT, low-alexithymic ASD, and low-alexithymic NT, we could accurately decode significantly above chance level. Additionally, in the cross-decoding analysis where the classifier was fed 1,718 scanpath images for high- and low alexithymic ASD individuals and tested on high- and low-alexithymic NT individuals, results showed that classification accuracy was significantly above chance level when using spatial images of eye movement patterns. Regarding FER performance results, we found that ASD and NT groups performed similarly, but at lower intensities of expressions, ASD individuals performed significantly worse than NT individuals. Together, these findings suggest that there may be eye-movement related differences between ASD and NT individuals, which may interact with alexithymia traits.
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Date Issued
2023
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00014358
Subject Headings
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Machine learning, Facial expression, Alexithymia, Eye tracking
Format
Document (PDF)
examination of alexithymia in a non-treatment seeking population of acute and chronic pain sufferers
Title
An examination of alexithymia in a non-treatment seeking population of acute and chronic pain sufferers.
Creator
Ramm, Karen L., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
Difficulty in communicating internal states may interfere with medical assessment of pain conditions. Individuals who score high on an assessment measure of a construct called alexithymia have difficulty in describing and/or identifying emotions. Both diffuse and low verbal communication styles have been related to alexithymia in chronic pain patients. Alexithymia has also been linked with pain intensity and various chronic pain conditions. As yet, research has not examined whether...
Show moreDifficulty in communicating internal states may interfere with medical assessment of pain conditions. Individuals who score high on an assessment measure of a construct called alexithymia have difficulty in describing and/or identifying emotions. Both diffuse and low verbal communication styles have been related to alexithymia in chronic pain patients. Alexithymia has also been linked with pain intensity and various chronic pain conditions. As yet, research has not examined whether alexithymia and acute pain are related. The current research examined high-functioning individuals with chronic, acute, or no pain. No difference in alexithymia levels was found between the groups. However, pain intensity was related to difficulty in identifying feelings, and participants who scored high in alexithymia produced a low number of words per sentence in pain descriptions.
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Date Issued
2007
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11606
Subject Headings
Emotions, Health aspects, Alexithymia, Evidence-based medicine, Mind and body, Somatoform disorders, Medicine and psychology
Format
Document (PDF)