Communication deficits and avoidance of angry faces in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract Background Understanding how emotional faces are processed is important to help characterize the social deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Aims We examined: (i) whether attention is modulated by emotional facial expression; (ii) the time course of the attentional preferences (short vs. long stimulus presentation rates); and (iii) the association between attentional biases and autistic symptomatology. Method and procedures We applied a dot-probe experiment with emotional faces (happy, sad, and angry). The sample was composed of ASD children without additional language and/or intellectual impairments (n = 29) and age-matched Typically Developing (TD) children (n = 29). Outco…