The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Possible neural background of affect and emotion: from the perspective of the impairment of affect in autism spectrum disorder
Language	J
AuthorList	Sayaka Yoshimura¹⁾, Motomi Toichi²⁾³⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Department of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry, Habilitation and Rehabilitation, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University ²⁾Faculty of Human Health Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University ³⁾The Organization for Promoting Neurodevelopmental Disorder Research
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 34 (4), 248-257, 2018
Received
Accepted
Abstract	The impairment of affect is one of main symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many researchers have approached the impairment from the perspective of the face processing. We reviewed such studies including emotion recognition in ASD, following the discussion about the neural basis of the impairment of affect. As a result, many studies investigating the face processing as well as autopsy studies reported the abnormal amygdala in ASD. The abnormal function of amygdala in ASD may affect other face processing problems such as impairment in dynamic visual processing and the mirror neuron system since the amygdala is suggested to adjust visual processing according to affective valence on the early stage of the face processing.
Keywords	autism spectrum disorder, affect, emotion, amygdala, face processing