Neuroimaging Evidence of Facial Emotion Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies

This meta-analysis of 25 fMRI studies examined brain activity differences during facial emotion processing in autistic versus non-autistic individuals, finding decreased activation in regions including the inferior frontal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and temporal areas. Results suggest both explicit and implicit emotion recognition tasks activate similar brain networks differently in autistic people, with potential implications for understanding social processing differences in autism.