Affective face processing analysis in autism using electroencephalogram

Past research in the area of psychology has indicated the inability of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) patients for interpreting other people´s emotion. This impairment is due to their lack of social motivation and eye contact during communication, causing insufficient information to the brain for interpreting emotional faces. This paper investigates human brainwaves for understanding affective face processing of ASD children. Pattern classification results are explained based on the 2-dimensional emotion model. The 2-dimensional model explains human emotion in terms of the pleasant/unpleasantness (or valence) and intensity (or arousal). Analysis results revealed that emotion of the non-autistic group is altered towards matching the affective faces currently displayed on the computer monitor. Emotion dynamics of ASD children, however, indicated the trend for reversed valence while watching emotionally related facial expressions.