A – 62 Attention and Inhibitory Control Predict Affect Production in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Abstract Objective The ability to intentionally generate clear, contextually appropriate affective expressions of emotion is crucial for social communication and often is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined whether inhibitory control and attention contribute to affect production abilities in autistic and typically developing youth, as these mechanisms may help suppress competing emotions, regulate intensity of emotional expression, and maintain focus to facilitate social learning. Method 165 children (ASD=116; TDC=49), ages 8–17, completed the Conners’ Continuous Auditory Test of Attention, a novel Affect Production Task (APT), and the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy facial and vocal affect recognition subtests. Age-scaled CATA commission errors score was used to quantify response inhibition and reaction time standard deviation quantified response time consistency, an indicator of attention. The APT prompted participants to express emotions (happy, sad, angry, afraid) through facial/vocal expression. Responses were audio/video recorded and classified by blinded raters as happy, sad, angry, afraid, or neutral. Accuracy was quantified via agreement between the task-prompted and rater-identified emotion. Results In the ASD group, poorer response inhibition significantly predicted less effective facial (β = –.303, p = .019) and vocal (β = –.261, p = .038) affect production after controlling for age and nonverbal IQ. In the TDC group, poorer response inhibition was unexpectedly associated with more effective facial affect production (β = .381, p = .045). Attention did not significantly predict affect production in either group, nor was this association mediated by affect recognition. Conclusion Inhibitory control may be a cognitive factor influencing affective communication.