10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.C.6294468.V1
Hannah Meyer-Lindenberg
Hannah
Meyer-Lindenberg
King's College London
Goethe University Frankfurt
Carolin Moessnang
Carolin
Moessnang
Central Institute of Mental Health
Heidelberg University
Bethany Oakley
Bethany
Oakley
King's College London
Jumana Ahmad
Jumana
Ahmad
King's College London
University of Greenwich
Luke Mason
Luke
Mason
University of London
Birkbeck, University of London
Emily J. H. Jones
Emily J. H.
Jones
University of London
Birkbeck, University of London
Hannah L. Hayward
Hannah L.
Hayward
King's College London
Jennifer Cooke
Jennifer
Cooke
King's College London
Daisy Crawley
Daisy
Crawley
King's College London
Rosemary Holt
Rosemary
Holt
University of Cambridge
Julian Tillmann
Julian
Tillmann
Roche (Switzerland)
Radboud University Nijmegen
Tony Charman
Tony
Charman
King's College London
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Simon Baron-Cohen
Simon
Baron-Cohen
University of Cambridge
Tobias Banaschewski
Tobias
Banaschewski
Central Institute of Mental Health
Heidelberg University
Christian Beckmann
Christian
Beckmann
Radboud University Nijmegen
Heike Tost
Heike
Tost
Central Institute of Mental Health
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Andreas
Meyer-Lindenberg
Central Institute of Mental Health
Jan K. Buitelaar
Jan K.
Buitelaar
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Radboud University Nijmegen
Declan G. Murphy
Declan G.
Murphy
University of Melbourne
King's College London
Epworth Hospital
Michael J. Brammer
Michael J.
Brammer
King's College London
Eva Loth
Eva
Loth
King's College London
Facial expression recognition is linked to clinical and neurofunctional differences in autism
Abstract Background Difficulties in social communication are a defining clinical feature of autism. However, the underlying neurobiological heterogeneity has impeded targeted therapies and requires new approaches to identifying clinically relevant bio-behavioural subgroups. In the largest autism cohort to date, we comprehensively examined difficulties in facial expression recognition, a key process in social communication, as a bio-behavioural stratification biomarker, and validated them against clinical features and neurofunctional responses. Methods Between 255 and 488 participants aged 6–30 years with autism, typical development and/or mild intellectual disability completed the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task and/or the Films Expression Task. We first examined mean-group differences on each test. Then, we used a novel intersection approach that compares two centroid and connectivity-based clustering methods to derive subgroups based on the combined performance across the three tasks. Measures and subgroups were then related to clinical features and neurofunctional differences measured using fMRI during a fearful face-matching task. Results We found significant mean-group differences on each expression recognition test. However, cluster analyses showed that these were driven by a low-performing autistic subgroup (~ 30% of autistic individuals who performed below 2SDs of the neurotypical mean on at least one test), while a larger subgroup (~ 70%) performed within 1SD on at least 2 tests. The low-performing subgroup also had on average significantly more social communication difficulties and lower activation in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus than the high-performing subgroup. Limitations Findings of autism expression recognition subgroups and their characteristics require independent replication. This is currently not possible, as there is no other existing dataset that includes all relevant measures. However, we demonstrated high internal robustness (91.6%) of findings between two clustering methods with fundamentally different assumptions, which is a critical pre-condition for independent replication. Conclusions We identified a subgroup of autistic individuals with expression recognition difficulties and showed that this related to clinical and neurobiological characteristics. If replicated, expression recognition may serve as bio-behavioural stratification biomarker and aid in the development of targeted interventions for a subgroup of autistic individuals.
69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
111714 Mental Health
figshare
2022
2022-11-11
2022-11-11
Collection
10.1186/s13229-022-00520-7
10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6294468
CC BY 4.0