Developmental plateau in visual object processing from adolescence to adulthood in autism.

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Cognitive psychology
• Autism spectrum disorder research

Background:

• Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit face recognition deficits.
• These deficits are linked to a lack of typical age-related improvement from adolescence to adulthood.
• Previous research utilized the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), focusing on whole faces with delays.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if atypical developmental trajectories in face recognition extend to other tasks and objects in autism.
• To examine recognition of face parts and non-face objects (cars) without memory delays.
• To assess developmental changes in autism from adolescence to adulthood across different recognition tasks.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the immediate memory (IM) task and the parts-whole face task from the Let's Face It! battery.
• Tested recognition of whole faces, face parts (eyes, mouth), and cars.
• Administered tasks without a delay between memorization and test trials.

Main Results:

• Recognition deficits in autism become more robust and generalized by adulthood, including cars.
• In the IM task, deficits shifted from faces only in childhood to include cars in adulthood.
• In the parts-whole task, deficits worsened by adulthood, affecting recognition of face parts and whole faces.

Conclusions:

• Autism-related recognition deficits increase between adolescence and adulthood, showing a lack of typical improvement.
• These deficits extend to non-face stimuli and tasks without memory delays.
• Brain maturation appears affected into adulthood in autism, with adolescence to adulthood being a vulnerable developmental stage.