Facial Sensitivity and Emotion Detection

Facial Sensitivity and Emotion Detection 

Child Development is a growing field that highlights the key aspects of a child’s behavior. A lot about infant growth is unknown, and facial recognition is a major factor in human life. Humans recognize each other via facial features, and this activates key components in the brain. However, individuals diagnosed with certain disorders can fail to recognize facial components which can hinder their ability to understand social cues. Autism Disorder is one of the most common disorders with the symptom of the inability to recognize facial expressions. Recent evidence indicates that facial sensitivity is different in infants with autism disorder diagnosis. Furthermore, these claims have been researched by Dr. Margaret Guy from The Cognitive Developmental Lab at Loyola University Chicago. Additionally, a team from Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology indicates the difficulty of recognition of facial expression specifically in Autistic children. Although both research teams indicate the face-sensitivity in early-age children throughout their studies, their research overall created a distinct connection to both the sensitivity process in normal early-age children and autistic children.

 

The research team from Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology used 63 children without a diagnosis of Autism and 64 children without a diagnosis. They promoted the participants to use an internet-based test of emotion recognition. The participants were presented with six basic facial expressions (happy, sad, surprised, disgusted, scared, and angry). Results from this study indicated that early-age individuals with autism disorder find it harder to recognize emotion from facial expressions. Dr. Sarah Griffiths was one of the study’s researchers. She mentioned this study was significant because it used a larger online platform and in comparison to other studies, this study produces more valid and accurate results. Furthermore, Professor Chris Jarrold from the Cognitive Development department from the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol mentions that these findings provide further evidence that individuals with autism have a degree of difficulty in recognizing basic emotions and should be taught to recognize these emotions to navigate in social situations. Additionally, these results allude to the difference in face sensitivity between individuals with and without the diagnoses. Fortunately, their team has developed an app to teach facial recognition for people with and without Autism Disorder. 

 

Similarly, Dr. Guy and her team specifically looked at cortical areas in the ventral visual pathway known for the processing of faces. They analyzed the ERP components via EEG usage. The N290 displays specificity for human faces, along with P1, P400, and Nc; however, these have been studied to a lesser degree. They examined infants in a cross-sectional study and reported all components to be involved in face processing. They found larger amplitudes in P1 and N290 when faces were presented. The amplitude of P400 was not significantly sensitive to faces and the Nc component was different altogether because it was influenced by the infant’s attentional state. Along with this information and Dr. Guy’s presentation, she frequently mentioned the difference between the components activated in infants with and without autism diagnoses and how it differs amongst both groups. Furthermore, Dr. Guy’s techniques differed from the research team at the University of Bristol. Nonetheless, this research gave insight into the facial processing of infants and enhanced child development methods. 

 

Autism Disorder is very common, 1 in 54 children in the United States will be diagnosed with this disorder. The research of Dr. Guy indicates the face-sensitive regions of infants at an early age. Furthermore, the research team at Bristol indicates the decline in expression recognition which ties into Dr. Guy’s understanding of facial sensitivity. Autism disorder does not have a cure since it is commonly a genetic condition. Although the spectrum of Autism disorder is fairly wide, the research team at Bristol indicated that facial expression recognition is lower for any individual showing symptoms of autism spectrum conditions. Additionally, the linkage between the two studies can eventually, and hopefully, be used to find potential therapies/treatments. Likewise, these studies also provide further explanations into this disorder along with its association towards cognitive development with its focus on face sensitivity. In conclusion, both research teams are on the right path to further understand child development and the way it can be affected. 

 

References

 

University of Bristol. (2017, March 31). Children with autism find understanding facial expressions difficult but make similar mistakes as peers, new study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 15, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170331121747.htm

 

Conte, S., Richards, J. E., Guy, M. W., Xie, W., & Roberts, J. E. (2020). Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life. NeuroImage, 211, 116602 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116602