Express Yourself – Capturing the Facial Expressions of People with ASD and Those of Their Typical Peers

"Express Yourself" is a research project for children and adolescents aged 10-17. We are trying to record what kinds of facial expressions people with ASD produce during conversation, story retelling, and other situations. In order to analyze their facial expressions we place tiny reflective stickers on their faces and capture the movement of those stickers with the same type of cameras used to create movies like Avatar and The Polar Express. Participation in this study will involve one to two visits to our laboratory at the UMass Medical School Shriver Center in Waltham. In the first visit your child would complete a series of standardized assessments. Based on this information we will determine whether he or she meets the specific qualifications for the study. If so, we will then schedule a second visit to return and complete the research task.

When participants come to Shriver for the research task, we will introduce them to the motion-capture cameras and place 32 tiny reflective stickers on their faces. Participants will then watch and listen to videos, view pictures, or participate in a conversation. They will be asked to respond the images or videos using a computer keyboard or by retelling what they just saw.

All of our study participants receive gift cards to Amazon or Toys R Us and a small gift and are free to participate in as many studies as they qualify for. Children and their parents are invited to come to our laboratory at the Shriver Center in Waltham, which is reachable by public transportation and has ample free parking.

To learn more about participating in "Express Yourself" or for more information about other studies in the F.A.C.E. lab at Shriver, please contact the Research Coordinator at (781) 642-0276, or facelab@umassmed.edu

Download the Express Yourself Study Flyer pdficonsmall

Docket# H-13568

View below the video of principle investigator Dr. Ruth Grossman describing the "Express Yourself"  project. Dr. Grossman is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMass Medical School and also holds an appointment as Assistant Professor at Emerson College.