Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder look differently at positive versus negative emotional faces

One of the core issues in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is problematic social interaction, which for an important part is reflected by poor processing of emotional information. Typically, adults show specific viewing patterns while scanning positive and negative emotional expressions in faces. In this study, we investigated whether the same pattern is present in a group of 3- to 6-year-old children with ASD and a 5-year-old control group. We found that although the group with ASD looked less at feature areas of the face (eye, mouth, nose) than the control group, both the children with ASD and the normally developing children displayed differential scanning patterns for faces displaying positive and negative emotions. Specifically, we found increased scanning of the eye region when looking at faces displaying negative emotions. This study shows that, although young children with ASD exhibit abnormal face scanning patterns, they do exhibit differential viewing strategies while scanning positive and negative facial expressions.