Lost For Emotion Words A Study On Autism Spectrum...

Lost For Emotion Words: A study on Autism Spectrum Conditions A study conducted by Moseley et.al., aimed to determine if the section of the brain regarding emotion is the same in individuals with ASC, than those without. Home Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are characterised by an impairment or inability to understand and express emotion. (Moseley et. al., 2014). Such a phenomenon is known as alexithymia, a condition where interpreting and describing emotion is extremely difficult as the individuals is unable to recognise emotions and their subtleties. Not only is such a difficulty exhibited when reading facial cues (E. Shaun et. al.,2015), but it is also evident during the processing of emotion related words. Hence regions of the brain†¦show more content†¦More specifically it was predicted that the cortical motor and limbic systems would be the main aspect affected, and should inturn reflect the degrees of autistic traits held by an individual with ASC. (Moseley et. al., 2014) Background Sigman et. al Sigman et al’s 1992 study described the emotional awareness, or lack thereof, in children with autism. This study placed two control groups, normal children and mentally retarded children, to be compared with children affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder. This ensured the results from the autistic group were dependant on the autistic traits alone. The study consisted of three conditions; adults showing fear, adults showing discomfort due to pain and adults showing distress. Sigman et. al found children affected by autism remained ignorant of the negative affects displayed by the adults in each condition, contrasting the control group’s reaction to cease playing with their toys. From this Sigman et. al., concluded that autistic children may lack the appropriate cognitive underpinnings to comprehend emotions displayed by others. As a result Sigman et. al., deduced that due to this inability autistic children choose to ignore facial cues as they do not form the motivation to take notice of them. Phillip et al R. Phillip et. al’s study investigated deficits in regarding body movement and verbal emotional processing. The study had participants exposed