AIRS 5th Annual Meeting: 2013

Title: Simulation training using song to enhance emotion perception skills in autism
Authors: Lucy M. McGarry (Department of Psychology, Ryerson University), Frank Russo
(Department of Psychology, Ryerson University)

Abstract

It has been found that individuals automatically generate simulations of other people’s facial
expressions during speech and song to aid in emotion perception. This is called the facial
feedback hypothesis. It has been suggested that this simulation mechanism is related to mirror
neuron system (MNS) activity; individuals with greater empathy generate greater MNS activity
and greater automatic mimicry of other people’s movements. However, MNS activity and
spontaneous motor mimicry is found to be dysfunctional in autism, a disorder that involves
deficits in emotion perception. In the current study, we have created a video game for children
with autism to play in which we plan to train spontaneous motor mimicry via simulation
training. In the video game, children will be asked to explicitly act out the emotions of people in
videos, and will see their performances played back in real time. The use of song stimuli
followed by speech stimuli is predicted to facilitate mimicry in this population. Videos will be
presented audio-visually because multimodal presentation of song is also thought to stimulate
MNS activation optimally in this population. Current preliminary data suggests that
individuals with low scores on an empathy scale generate greater emotional intensity ratings
after simulation training of vocally-expressed emotions. We predict that in the current study,
imitation training will facilitate emotion perception and will lead to changes in MNS
functioning as measured using EEG. (Relevant also to Theme 2, and 3.3