Intact perception but abnormal orientation towards face-like objects in young children with ASD

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social interaction deficits and difficulties with face perception.
• The precise neural mechanisms underlying these face processing impairments in ASD remain largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of global face-like configurations on visual orienting and perception in young children with ASD.
• To compare face-specific visual attention patterns between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) controls.

Main Methods:

• Utilized face-like object stimuli known to elicit pareidolia in TD individuals.
• Observed and recorded the initial orientation and visual exploration patterns of young children with ASD and TD controls when presented with these stimuli.

Main Results:

• TD children exhibited a stronger initial orienting bias towards upright face-like objects compared to children with ASD.
• Once fixated on the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, indicating successful face perception.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest abnormal social orienting in ASD, potentially linked to atypical subcortical pathway tuning affecting face attention.
• Young children with ASD demonstrate the capacity for holistic face perception, even with generic face-like objects.