Brief Report: Emotional Processing in High-Functioning Autism—Physiological Reactivity and Affective Report

Abstract

This study examined physiological response and affective report in 10 adult individuals with autism and 10 typically developing controls. An emotion induction paradigm using stimuli from the International Affective Picture System was applied. Blood pressure, heart and self-ratings of experienced valence (pleasure), arousal and dominance (control) were assessed during the experiment. Physiological response profiles correlated low to significantly negative between groups. Individuals with autism experienced less arousal when viewing sad pictures but higher arousal while processing neutral stimuli. In addition, they reported more control than the normative group when viewing fearful and sad stimuli. Findings indicate altered physiological reactivity and affective report in autism, which may be related to more general impairments in socio-emotional functioning.

Appendix: SAM Instruction (Translation German to English)

We thank you for coming today and appreciate your participation in this study. We are interested in how people respond to pictures that represent objects and events that occur in life. We will show you 18 different pictures on the screen in front of you and you will be rating each picture in terms of how they made you feel while viewing it. There are no right or wrong answers, so simply respond as honestly and exactly as you can.

Now let me explain your involvement more in detail. If you look at this sheet, you will see three sets of five figures. We will call this set of figures SAM, and you will be using it to rate how you felt while viewing each picture. You will use one page—make all three ratings—for each picture that you observe. SAM shows three different kinds of feelings: Happy versus Unhappy, Excited versus Calm and Controlled versus In-control. Each of the 18 pictures will be presented for 6 s. Then will you will have 25 s to make the three ratings before the next picture appears on the screen.

I will now show you a practice item to explain to you how to rate the pictures [training item (umbrella) is shown on the screen]. You can see that each SAM figure varies along each scale. In this illustration, the first SAM scale is the happy-unhappy scale, which ranges from a smile to a frown. At one extreme of the happy versus unhappy scale, you felt happy, pleased, satisfied, contented, hopeful. If you felt completely happy while viewing the picture, you can indicate this by placing an “X” over the very happy figure to the left, like this (demonstrated by examiner). The other end of the scale is when you felt completely unhappy, annoyed, unsatisfied, melancholic, despaired, bored. You can indicate feeling completely unhappy by placing an “X” on the very unhappy figure at the right, like this (demonstrated by examiner). The figures also allow you to describe intermediate feelings of pleasure, by placing an “X” over any other figure or in between two figures, like this (demonstrated by examiner). This permits you to make more finely graded ratings of how you feel in reaction to the pictures.

The excited versus calm dimension is the second type of feeling displayed here. At one extreme of the scale you felt stimulated, excited, frenzied, jittery, wide-awake, aroused. If you felt completely aroused while viewing the picture, place an “X” over the figure at the left of the row, like this (demonstrated by examiner). On the other hand, at the other end of the scale, you felt completely relaxed, calm, sluggish, dull, sleepy, unaroused. You can indicate that you felt completely calm by placing an “X” over the figure at the right end of the row, like this (demonstrated by examiner). As with the happy-unhappy scale, you can represent intermediate levels by placing an “X” over any of the other figures. If you are not at all excited or not at all calm, place an “X” over the figure in the middle of the row. Again, if you wish to make a more finely tuned rating of how excited or calm you feel, place an “X” between the pictures, like this (demonstrated by examiner).

The last scale of feeling that you will rate is for controlled versus in-control. At one end of the scale you have feelings characterized as completely controlled, influenced, cared-for, awed, submissive, guided. Please indicate feeling controlled by placing an “X” over the figure at the left, like this (demonstrated by examiner). At the other extreme of this scale, you felt completely controlling, influential, in control, important, dominant, autonomous. You can indicate that you felt dominant by placing an “X” over the figure at the right of the row, like this (demonstrated by examiner). Note that when the figure is large, you feel important and influential, and that it will be very small when you feel controlled and guided. If you feel neither in control nor controlled you should make an “X” over the middle picture. Remember you can also represent your feelings between these endpoints. Either place an “X” over any of the intermediate figures, or between them, like this (demonstrated by examiner).

Some of the pictures may prompt emotional experiences, others may seem relatively neutral. Your rating of each picture should reflect your immediate personal experience, no more. Please rate each one as you actually felt while you watched the picture.

Please now rate the practice item (umbrella) (examiner awaits rating and gives feedback). As I said before, 18 different pictures will be shown on the screen in front of you and you will be rating each picture like I described to you before. There are no right or wrong answers, so simply respond as honestly and exactly as you can. It is important that your eyes are directed towards the screen. Each of 18 pictures will be presented 6 s and is prefixed by an acoustic signal. Please view the picture for the entire time it is on and make your ratings immediately after the picture is removed. You will have 25 s to make the three ratings before the next picture appears on the screen. So, do not take much time to dwell on your ratings. Respond rather spontaneously. While you are rating the SAM, I will read your pulse and blood pressure from the device on your hand wrist. Do you have any questions regarding the procedure (examiner clears misunderstandings)? I will now start the presentation of the pictures. OK? (Examiner starts on sign of the participant).

After the experiment: Thank you very much for the participation in the study.