Concordance between physiological arousal and emotion expression during fear in young children with autism spectrum disorders

Expressions of facial and bodily fear and heart rate arousal were simultaneously measured in response to a remote controlled robot (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery). Heart rate analyses revealed a main effect of task from baseline to fear ( p ηp2), no interaction effect and no effect for group.

In addition, children with autism spectrum disorder showed intact facial and bodily expressions of fearful affect compared to typically developing children. With regard to the relationship between expression and arousal, the results provided evidence for concordance between expression and arousal in typically developing children ( r = 0.45, n = 45, p r = 0.20, n = 21, p = 0.38). A moderation analysis revealed no significant interaction between expression and arousal for children with and without autism spectrum disorder ( F (1, 62) = 1.23, p = 0.27, ηp2), which might be the result of limited power.