4.5 Article

Exploring social emotion processing in autism: evaluating the reading the mind in the eyes test using network analysis

Journal

BMC PSYCHIATRY
Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

BMC
DOI: 10.1186/s12888-022-03773-x

Keywords

RMET; Negative emotion; Network analysis; Social cognition

Categories

Funding

  1. Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [MOST 107-2410-H-002 -127 -MY2]
  2. National Health Research Insitute of Taiwan [NHRI-EX104-10404PI, NHRI-EX105-10404PI, NHRI-EX106-10404PI, NHRI-EX107-10404PI, NHRI-EX10810404PI]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study examined the differences in underlying mechanisms of socioemotional processes between males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and healthy control males using the Taiwanese version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) and network analysis methods. The results showed that ASD males performed poorer on the RMET and had higher network density and in-degree scores, especially in negative words, compared to control males.
Background Features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include difficulties in processing and interpreting socioemotional information. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) is a validated measurement for processing socioemotional ability. However, previous RMET studies did not explore patterns of incorrect answers and the emotional valence of the test items. This study used the Taiwanese version of the RMET and the network analysis methods to examine the differences in underlying mechanisms of socioemotional processes between 30 males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (mean age = 18 years) and 30 healthy control males (mean age = 17 years). For each test item, a picture of a person's eyes and partial face was shown with four words describing the emotional status on picture corners. Participants were instructed to choose one of the four words that best matched the person's thinking or feeling. We further classified the words into three valences of emotional categories to examine socioemotional processes. Results Our results showed that ASD males performed poorer on the RMET than the controls. ASD males had higher network density and in-degree scores, especially in negative words, than control males. Conclusions The findings suggest that males with ASD might have deficits in mapping the best emotional concept words to the target item, especially for processing negative emotion.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.5
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available