Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation EEG Reveals Reduced Neural Sensitivity to Fearful Faces in Children with Autism.
(2019) Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders — Vol. 49, n° 11, p. 4658-4673 (2019)
Files
SVDDetal-Journalofautismdevelopdisorders.pdf
Open Access - Adobe PDF
- 3.28 MB
Details
- Authors
Van der Donck, Stephanie 
Dzhelyova, Milena Vettori, Sofie Rossion, Bruno Boets, Bart
- Abstract
- We objectively quantified the neural sensitivity of school-aged boys with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to detect briefly presented fearful expressions by combining fast periodic visual stimulation with frequency-tagging electroencephalography. Images of neutral faces were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with fearful expressions at 1.2 Hz oddball rate. While both groups equally display the face inversion effect and mainly rely on information from the mouth to detect fearful expressions, boys with ASD generally show reduced neural responses to rapid changes in expression. At an individual level, fear discrimination responses predict clinical status with an 83% accuracy. This implicit and straightforward approach identifies subtle deficits that remain concealed in behavioral tasks, thereby opening new perspectives for clinical diagnosis.
- Affiliations
Citations
Van der Donck, S., Dzhelyova, M., Vettori, S., Thielen, H., Steyaert, J., Rossion, B., & Boets, B. (2019). Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation EEG Reveals Reduced Neural Sensitivity to Fearful Faces in Children with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(11), 4658-4673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04172-0 (Original work published 2019)