ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the recognition ability and abnormal processing characteristics to basic emotional faces in the early phase in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Photos of Chinese static faces with four basic emotions (fearful, happy, angry and sad) were used as stimulus. Twenty-five ASD children and twenty-two age- and gender-matched typical developed children (normal controls) were asked to match the emotional faces with words. Event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded concurrently.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>N170 latencies for total emotion and fearful face in the left temporal region were faster than in the right one in normal controls (P<0.05), but the results were not noted in ASD children. Further, N170 latencies in the left temporal region of ASD children were slower than normal controls for total emotion, fearful and happy faces (P<0.05), and their N170 latencies in the right temporal region were prone to slower than normal controls for angry and fearful faces.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The holistic perception speed of emotional faces in the early cognitive processing phase in ASD children is slower than normal controls. The lateralized response in the early phase of recognizing emotional faces may be aberrant in children with ASD.</p>
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the characteristics of working memory ability on emotional faces and related event-related potential (ERP) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The Chinese Facial Affective Picture System was used as test material, and the event-related potential system was used to record the electroencephalographic data when 16 ASD children aged 6-12 years (ASD group) and 14 normal children matched for age (control group) were completing the facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task. The characteristics of P3b component were analyzed for both groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the control group, the ASD group had a significantly longer reaction time (1 527 ms vs 1 060 ms; P<0.05) and a significantly lower accuracy rate (76% vs 88%; P<0.01) in the facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task. There was a difference in the amplitude of P3b component during the encoding stage between the two groups. In the ASD group, the P3b component on the left side electrode had a higher amplitude than that on the right side electrode (P<0.05), while the control group had no such characteristics.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>There is a difference in P3b component during the encoding stage between school-aged ASD children and normal children. In ASD children, working memory on emotional faces may depend more on the related neural pathway in the left hemisphere.</p>