Thesis defense Alina Lartseva (Donders series 226)

1 July 2016

Promotor: prof. dr. J. Buitelaar, copromotor: prof. dr. T. Dijkstra

Reading emotions: how people with Autism Spectrum Disorders process emotional language

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly complex and clinically and etiologically heterogeneous disorder with a population prevalence of about 1% (Matson and Kozlowski, 2011; Matson and Shoemaker, 2009). Despite thousands of research papers on ASD are being published each year, our knowledge about the clinical phenotype and its neural underpinnings and etiology is fragmentary. This thesis is aimed at advancing our understanding of the recognition and processing of emotions in ASD, with a special focus on emotion language. In the sections below, I will shortly further introduce ASD, emotion symptoms in ASD and the recognition and processing of emotions, language and ASD, and genetics of ASD. Then I will elaborate on the specic aims of the thesis.