Project Description:
For most people, it is very easy to understand what other people are feeling. The social and emotional connection that most of us develop with others is easy and natural, and helps us forge strong social bonds with our loved ones. However, children with autism sometimes have difficulty understanding the emotions of others. This may be due to difficulty in how their brains interpret the emotional expressions of others and can lead to problems making strong emotional connections with others. Psychologists call this ability empathy, and a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that this may be a fundamental part of social development. Unfortunately, research also suggests that children with autism may not experience empathy in the same way that typically children with autism may not experience empathy in the same way that typically developing people do. For example, someone with autism may think that a person whose mouth is shaped like a ?U? (with the corners upturned) may look very odd. Typically developing individuals would quickly determine that the same person is smiling and infer that he or she feels happy.
Although empathy appears to be very important for social development, little is known about exactly how it contributes to social development. Moreover, how empathy is experienced by those with autism and how it influences the symptoms of autism has only been explored in the last few years. The researchers at JFK Partners have begun a three year project to try to develop a better understanding of empathy in children with autism. This study uses state-of-the-art psychophysiological recordings to understand how the brains of children with autism experience the facial expressions they see. Psychophysiology uses advanced computer systems to track the body?s responses to visual inputs. In this study, children wear tiny sensors on their arm, face and neck to track their reactions to a series of video clips. The sensors are painless and are held on with stickers (similar to Band-Aids). The readings that the sensors pick up tell the scientists how children with different developmental backgrounds react to the videos, and this helps us understand how their brains interpret the emotional expressions.
The information from this study will help psychologists develop more advanced understanding of how children, both with and without autism, develop socially and emotionally. Moreover, this study will provide the knowledge necessary to create more appropriate treatments for children with autism that focus on their social strengths.
