Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
DOI 10.1007/s10803-009-0799-z
Dear Editor, Both hypotheses propose that children with autism have
Autism spectrum conditions are frequently characterized overwhelming EE and thus find it difficult to interact with
as empathy disorders (e.g., Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright others. Houzel’s (2000) psychoanalytic approach also
2004; Decety and Moriguchi 2007). Although, thanks to seems to imply that children with autism have too much
the theory of mind hypothesis (Baron-Cohen 1995), it is EE. Caldwell (2006), an experienced autism practitioner,
widely accepted that people with autism tend to have weak has outlined a similar idea.
cognitive empathy, there is now a range of theoretical There is evidence that motor empathy (the tendency to
views about autism and emotional empathy (EE). EE is an automatically mimic the movements of another individual)
emotional response in an individual that stems from and and EE are inextricably linked (Nummenmaa et al. 2008).
parallels the emotional state of another individual. Theories And there are now four empirical studies showing that
positing (inter alia) that people with autism have weak EE people with autism spectrum conditions may have stronger
include the ‘‘extreme male brain’’ theory (Baron-Cohen EE/motor empathy than people with typical development.
2002) and the mirror neuron theory (Williams et al. 2001). Capps et al. (1993) observed the faces of children with
In support of these theories, Minio-Paluello et al. (2009) autism and children with typical development in a para-
reported that embodied pain empathy is absent in adults digm designed to elicit EE in the children. They found that
with Asperger syndrome. However, the video stimuli used the children with autism displayed much more empathic
in that study did not include facial, vocal, or gestural facial affect than the other children. Magnee et al. (2007)
expressions of emotion. Other recent research indicates that reported that the faces of adults with autism show height-
people with Asperger syndrome have intact EE (Dziobek ened electromyographic responsiveness to the emotional
et al. 2008). expressions of others. Bird et al. (2007) found that adults
Two theoretical approaches explicitly propose that with autism show heightened automatic mimicry of the
individuals with autism actually have heightened EE: the hand movements of others. Bastiaansen et al. (2008) con-
‘‘empathy imbalance’’ hypothesis (Smith 2006, 2009) and ducted a neuroimaging study in which the participants
the ‘‘intense world’’ hypothesis (Markram et al. 2007). The viewed movies of facial expressions of emotion: Adults
former hypothesis is derived from a Darwinian argument with autism activated their neural mirror systems more
about human empathy and the latter hypothesis is based on strongly than participants with typical development. The
neurophysiological findings in a rodent model of autism. researchers suggested that individuals with autism ‘‘may
find the social world challenging not because it fails to
engage them but because it overwhelms them’’ (p. 276).
Many people with autism and their caregivers believe
that heightened EE is a feature of autism (Smith 2009). The
simplest (and most far-reaching) explanation of the origin
A. Smith (&)
of these beliefs is that they are accurate. I predict that
Dryburgh Industrial Estate, 7 Faraday Street, Dundee DD2 3QQ,
Scotland, UK further empirical evidence of heightened EE in individuals
e-mail: adamjamessmith@fsmail.net with autism will emerge.
123
1748 J Autism Dev Disord (2009) 39:1747–1748
123
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.