HFA adults have hyperactive response to faces.

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know if this was ever posted on this forum, so I may be showing something everybody already knows about. It is a dissertation from 2008 by M.J.C.M. Magnée at the University of Utrect, Netherlands, which contradicts the notion that people on the spectrum have an impairment detecting emotion in a face.

Neuroscientist Magnée tested the reflexes of facial muscles when seeing a happy or a frightened face of a group of young HFA adults and a volunteer controlgroup without a HFA diagnosis. When we see an emotion, our facial muscles automatically respond with neuro-electric activity. This need not be visible on the outside, but it does show up in both EEC (electro-encephalogram) and EMG (electromyogram). It was found that this reflex was stronger in the HFA group than in the NT control group. The researcher speculates that this strong reaction may be the reason why people on the spectrum do not like to make eye contact and are easily confused and overwhelmed in social situations.

Fascinating thought. At first glance it certainly rings true to me in a couple of vague ways, though I'm not much on the spectrum. I'm looking forward to having a look and the link and some time to consider this properly.

I wonder if this is related as well. When I am trying to pose for a picture and I am supposed to smile, I think I am smiling normally, but the picture comes out looking like a cartoon, like an extreme version of smile.
I do agree with this article as far as finding homeostasis goes. People think I am experiencing a lack of feeling and noticing from my demeanor, but really, this isn't at all true.

I agree with the idear of autistic people, some, eggsperiencing a higher level of general arousal in response to hooomans or hoooman activities, like making facial eggspressions, but I don't think that this general arousal helps me understand what other people are thinking. Mostly, I just feel uncomfortable in the presence of people or interacting with people, and a little bit of hoooman interaction goes a long way for me. A typical amount is overloading. But the hyper-response does not translate into an application of social cognition for me, so I can have this hyper-response and social cognitive impairment at the same time.

In nature I engage birds all day, and have some friends across all the waterfowl specie's spectrum

Parrots and tui are more retiring, as are rabbits and rodents.

I can become too animated around others, but lately I've been good socially and calm