已经开发了大量基于计算机的培训计划作为干预措施,以帮助患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的个人提高其面部情绪识别能力,以及社交技能。然而,目前还不清楚这些面部情绪训练计划能在多大程度上产生有益的效果,持久的,和可推广的结果。使用标准的荟萃分析技术,我们调查了面部情绪训练的效果,包括泛化和维持,仅限于包含595名ASD患者的随机对照试验研究.我们的发现表明,与对照组相比,干预措施使接受训练的个体的情绪识别得到了显着改善。然而,虽然也有一些证据表明训练效果是普遍的,少数进行随访和评估社交技能的研究报告没有保持改善,也没有证据表明社交技能总体改善.总的来说,分析显示,在训练改善方面的效果中等,表明面部情绪训练可能是增强ASD情绪识别技能的有效方法,尽管需要更多的研究来评估效果的维持和社交技能的可能总体改善.总结:面部情绪训练作为一种干预措施,可能是帮助提高自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)情绪识别的潜在方法。然而,对其疗效的强有力的经验支持尚未得到充分确立。这里,我们对以前的研究进行了荟萃分析,以总结面部情绪训练对ASD的影响。我们的结果表明,训练在随后的情绪识别中产生了稳健的改善,而维护和推广效果仍需进一步调查。迄今为止,没有实验证实的社交技能改善的报道。
A large number of computer-based training programs have been developed as an intervention to help individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) improve their facial emotion recognition ability, as well as social skills. However, it is unclear to what extent these facial emotion training programs can produce beneficial, long-lasting, and generalizable results. Using standard meta-analytic techniques, we investigated the effects of facial emotion training including generalization and maintenance restricted to randomized control trial studies comprising a total of 595 individuals with ASD. Our findings revealed that the intervention resulted in a robust improvement in emotion recognition for individuals receiving training compared with controls. However, while there was also some evidence for generalization of training effects, the small number of studies which conducted follow-ups and assessed social skills reported that improvements were not maintained and there was no evidence for general improvement in social skills. Overall, the analysis revealed a medium effect size in training improvement indicating that facial emotion training may be an effective method for enhancing emotion recognition skills in ASD although more studies are required to assess maintenance of effects and possible general improvements in social skills. LAY SUMMARY: Facial emotion training as an intervention may be a potential way to help improve emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however robust empirical support for its efficacy has not been sufficiently established. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of previous studies to summarize the effects of facial emotion training on ASD. Our results show that the training produces a robust improvement in subsequent emotion recognition, while maintenance and generalization effects still need further investigation. To date, no experimentally verified improvements in social skills have been reported.