ORIGINAL PAPER Emotional Resonance Deficits in Autistic Children Alessandro Grecucci • Paolo Brambilla • Roma Siugzdaite • Danielle Londero • Franco Fabbro • Raffaella Ida Rumiati Published online: 18 July 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract According to some theories imitation, defined as an action resonance mechanism, is deficient in autism. In contrast, other theories (e.g., the ‘‘top down control of imitation’’ hypothesis) state that the problem is not in imitation per se but in the way social cues modulate imi- tative responses. In this study, 15 high-functioning children with autism and 15 matched controls were tested for their ability to imitate finger movements preceded by neutral and emotional facial expressions (primes) in a stimulus– response compatibility task. Hand movements performed after neutral expressions did not differ between the two groups (i.e., they both showed a normal imitative ten- dency). However, hand movements performed after emo- tional expressions significantly differed between the two populations, with controls, but not autistic spectrum dis- order (ASD), showing enhanced imitation in the emotional condition. This study supports the view that, in ASD, imitation abilities are spared but they are not modulated according to the emotional and social context. Keywords Imitation Á Action resonance Á Empathy Á Emotions Á Mirror neurons The imitation difficulties of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have been proposed to be the core deficit of this pathology (Avikainen et al. 2003; Rogers et al. 2003; Williams et al. 2001), even though several studies failed to find clear evidence of such a deficit (e.g., Aldridge et al. 2000; Beadle-Brown and Whiten 2004; Carpenter et al. 2001; Hamilton et al. 2007; Pierno et al. 2008; Press et al. 2010). This inconsistency may be due to the fact that these studies used different methodologies and that emotional and interpersonal factors intervened in the relationship between the autistic individuals and the model to imitate. Several theories of autism have been proposed in the attempt to account for these imitation deficit. According to the ‘‘broken mirror’’ theory (Williams et al. 2001), for instance, autism may be caused by a dysfunction of the action resonance mechanism. This corresponds to the so- called mirror neuron system (MNS) that, when damaged, leads to a reduced ability to understand and reproduce actions (Iacoboni and Dapretto 2006; Rizzolatti and A. Grecucci Á R. I. Rumiati Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Study (SISSA/ISAS), via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy A. Grecucci (&) Department of Cognitive Science and Education (DiSCoF)/Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), Faculty of Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy e-mail: alessandro.grecucci@unitn.it P. Brambilla Á D. Londero Á F. Fabbro Scientific Institute, IRCCS ‘‘E. Medea’’, Udine, Italy P. Brambilla DISM, Inter-University Centre for Behavioural Neurosciences (ICBN), University of Udine, Udine, Italy R. Siugzdaite Medical Image and Signal Processing (MEDISIP), Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University Hospital IBiTech, Block B De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Ghent, Belgium F. Fabbro Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy 123 J Autism Dev Disord (2013) 43:616–628 DOI 10.1007/s10803-012-1603-z