The Characteristics Of Facial Expression Recognition In Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Related White Matter Fiber Bundle Research

【Objective】 To compare the characteristics of facial emotion recognition and the integrity of cingulum bundle between children and adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developed (TD), and further to investigate the relationship between eigenvalues of cingulum bundle and the characteristics of facial emotion recognition of high-functioning ASD children and adolescents.[Methods] Thirty-four high-functioning ASD and thirty-nine age, gender and intelligent quotient (IQ) matched TD children and adolescents were recruited, underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scan. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values in the bilateral cingulum bundle were compared using interactive tractography method, respectively. The computer based software of Presentation 0.71 was used to present cartoon images of five basic emotions to the subjects, and furtherly analysis the accuracy of five facial expression recognition between two groups of participants. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the association of cingulum bundle eigenvalues with the clinical symptoms.[Results] The overall accuracy of facial expression recognition in ASD and TD children and adolescents were 55%,73% respectively, and the accuracy of ASD group was lower than TD group(t=-4.53, P=0.00). The correct rate of sadness, anger and neutral emotion in five basic emotion(happy, fear, anger, sadness and neutral) in ASD patients compared with TD were significantly lower (both P= 0.00), sad[ASD group(0.50±0.24)<TD group (0.77 ±0.19)], angry [ASD group(0.47 ± 0.24)<TD group(0.66±0.21)], and neutral[ASD group(0.64±0.37)<TD group(0.89±0.21)]; Compared with TD group, FA values of the white matter cingulum bundle in the right side were significantly increased in high-functioning ASD group (t=2.74, P=0.008). Moreover, FA values of bilateral cingulum bundle positively correlated with age (left side t=0.42, P= 0.02; right side t=0.38, P= 0.03), and the FA values of bilateral cingulum bundles had no correlationship with the overall accuracy of facial expression recognition in high-functioning ASD group(P>0.05). We also found that sadness, neutral and total emotion recognition accuracy in high-functioning ASD group had significant positive correlation with age(P>0.05). While there was no significant correlation between the overall accuracy of facial expression recognition and FA value of bilateral cingulum bundle in TD group, and no significant correlation between FA value of bilateral cingulum bundle and scores of ADI-R and IQ were found, either.[Conclusion] High-functioning ASD children and adolescents had abnormal facial processing patterns, especially the recognition of sadness, anger and neutral emotion; and we also found that the microstructure of right cingulate bundle was abnormal in High-functioning ASD group. Age was an important impact factor of the emotional functioning (facial expression recognition) and the integrity of the cingulate bundle.