ArticleThe British journal of clinical psychology2026
No added cost: Emotion recognition in co-occurring ADHD and ASD.
Article in The British journal of clinical psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Predicting emotional valence in autism: a preregistered study in the Bayesian Brain framework.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Comparison of face attention bias in adults with ASD, ADHD, or comorbid ADHD+ASD.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesFacial emotion recognition (FER) is fundamental for social interaction, yet this ability is often impaired in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While research has documented these difficulties, two key questions remain: Are these deficits specific to recognising emotions or do they reflect broader challenges in face processing? Does the increasingly documented co-occurrence of ADHD and ASD exacerbate these difficulties?
methodsWe compared emotion discrimination thresholds (EDT) in N = 92 participants aged 17-45 years (mean = 28.5, SD = 7.2), including 22 autistic-only, 24 ADHD-only, 22 co-occurring ADHD+ASD and 24 typically-developing individuals. We measured EDT with faces gradually changing from a neutral to an emotional expression (angry, fearful, happy or sad) and designed a non-emotional control task. Using eye tracking, we ruled out potential differences in visual attention to facial features between groups.
resultsWe showed a specific disadvantage in emotion in the clinical groups, with increased EDT in all three clinical groups, with effect sizes ranging from .43 for co-occurring ADHD+ASD to .77 for autistic-only. Crucially, emotion recognition deficits were not amplified by the co-occurrence of ADHD and ASD, when considering performance in the control task.
conclusionsOur study possibly suggests equal mechanisms underlying reduced FER in ASD and ADHD. This mechanism should be identified to develop targeted interventions addressing social cognitive challenges in ASD and ADHD, improving social integration and well-being. Clinicians should recognise that FER difficulties are shared across both conditions, since a primary association with ASD may lead to unwarranted assumptions of ASD co-occurrence in ADHD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.