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Emotional Responses to Odors in Children with High-Functioning Autism: Autonomic Arousal, Facial Behavior and Self-Report

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Abstract

Although emotional functioning is impaired in children with autism, it is unclear if this impairment is due to difficulties with facial expression, autonomic responsiveness, or the verbal description of emotional states. To shed light on this issue, we examined responses to pleasant and unpleasant odors in eight children (8–14 years) with high-functioning autism and 8 age-matched typically developing controls. Despite subtle differences in the facial actions of the children with autism, children in both groups had similar facial and autonomic emotional responses to the odors. However, children with autism were less likely than controls to report an emotional reaction to the odors that matched their facial expression, suggesting difficulties in the self report of emotional states.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the children and parents who accepted to participate to this study. This research was supported by the Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) and the French Ministry of Health (PHRC program to Luc Marlier); Daniel Messinger’s involvement in this project was supported by grants from Autism Speaks, the National Science Foundation (1052736 & 0808767), and the National Institutes of Health (HD047417 & HD057284). We gratefully thank: Manuel Devetak for informatic support, William Geroldini, Thierry Pebayle, and Arnaud Eschenlauer for their technical support, Franco De Marchi, Clara Sforzina and Giovanni Grube for their organisation in the recruitment of subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

    Jasna Legiša & Enzo Kermol

  2. Centro Ricerca FACS, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

    Jasna Legiša & Enzo Kermol

  3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Alsace, France

    Jasna Legiša & Luc Marlier

  4. Université de Strasbourg, Alsace, France

    Jasna Legiša & Luc Marlier

  5. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Daniel S. Messinger

  6. Centro Ricerca FACS, Via Artemidoro 11, Trieste, Italy

    Jasna Legiša

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  1. Jasna Legiša
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Correspondence to Jasna Legiša.

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Legiša, J., Messinger, D.S., Kermol, E. et al. Emotional Responses to Odors in Children with High-Functioning Autism: Autonomic Arousal, Facial Behavior and Self-Report. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 869–879 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1629-2

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