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Updated: Jan 31, 2026
12:55
P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
Published on: December 26, 2013
9.6K
Shifting Preferences for Primate Faces in Neurotypical Infants and Infants Later Diagnosed With ASD
Amy Yamashiro1, Andrea Sorcinelli1, Tazmin Rahman1
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York.
Summary
Infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a significant decrease in attention to both human and monkey faces between 6 and 18 months. This reduced face-gazing may contribute to later social-communication challenges in children with ASD.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Infants use face-gazing to acquire social information crucial for development.
- Early face-processing differences are implicated in social-communication deficits observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- Neurotypical infants develop a preference for human faces within the first month of life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate differences in face-preference development between infants later diagnosed with ASD and neurotypical infants.
- To examine face-gazing patterns towards human and nonhuman primate faces from birth to 2 years.
- To explore the potential link between altered face-gazing and social-communication difficulties in ASD.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted comparing looking times to face stimuli (human, monkey) and nonface controls.
- Experiment 1 assessed relative looking times to human/monkey faces versus nonface stimuli.
- Experiment 2 measured total looking times to paired human and monkey faces.
Main Results:
- Between 6 and 18 months, infants later diagnosed with ASD exhibited a more pronounced downturn in looking time towards both human and monkey faces compared to neurotypical infants.
- This pattern suggests a divergence in face-processing development in infants who later receive an ASD diagnosis.
- No significant differences were observed in the initial increase of attention to faces.
Conclusions:
- A decline in attention to primate faces during infancy may be an early indicator of social-communicative challenges associated with ASD.
- Altered early perceptual experiences with faces could play a role in the developmental trajectory of ASD.
- Understanding these early visual attention patterns offers insights into the neurodevelopmental underpinnings of ASD.
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