The relationship between affective visual mismatch negativity and interpersonal difficulties across autism and schizotypal traits

Abstract

ObjectiveSensory deficits are a feature of autism and schizophrenia, as well as the upper end of their non-clinical spectra. The mismatch negativity (MMN), an index of pre-attentive auditory processing, is particularly sensitive in detecting such deficits; however, little is known about the relationship between the visual MMN (vMMN) to emotional faces and autism and schizophrenia spectrum symptom domains. MethodsWe probed the vMMN to happy, sad, and neutral faces in 77 young adults (18-40 years, 41 female), and evaluated their degree of autism and schizophrenia spectrum traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Results: The vMMN to happy faces was significantly larger than the vMMNs to sad and neutral faces (p > 0.05). The vMMN to happy faces was associated with interpersonal difficulties as indexed by AQ Communication and Attention to Detail subscales, and SPQ Interpersonal Features (p < 0.05, uncorrected), such that a larger vMMN was associated with more interpersonal difficulties. ConclusionsPre-attentive processing of positive affect might be more specific to the interpersonal features associated with autism and schizophrenia. SignificanceThese findings add valuable insights into the growing body of literature investigating symptom-specific neurobiological markers of autism and schizophrenia spectrum conditions. Highlights- The visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN) is larger in response to happy compared to sad or neutral facial expressions - The vMMN to happy facial expressions is specifically associated with more social communication difficulties - vMMN to positive affect may be a neural mechanism associated with social communication difficulties in autism and schizophrenia