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Visual search strategies during facial recognition in children with ASD
Albrecht, Matthew A. Foster, Joanne Joosten, Annette Falkmer, Marita Tang, Julia Leung, Denise Ordqvist, Anna Falkmer, Torbjorn
Albrecht, Matthew A.
Foster, Joanne
Joosten, Annette
Falkmer, Marita
Tang, Julia
Leung, Denise
Ordqvist, Anna
Falkmer, Torbjorn
Abstract
Facial recognition is a complex skill necessary for successful human interpersonal and social interactions. Given that the most prevalent disorder of social interaction is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a number of studies have investigated and found impaired facial recognition abilities in people with ASD. Further, this impairment may be critically involved in mediating the deficits in interpersonal and social interactions in people with ASD. We sought to address the question of whether face processing is impaired in children with ASD in the current study. While there were a number of differences in visual search behaviours between the 19 children with ASD and the 15 controls, this did not manifest in deficits in facial recognition accuracy. In addition, there were notable differences with respect to eye fixation behaviours and recognition accuracy in this study compared to the findings in a previous similar study conducted in adults with ASD. These differences suggest a performance enhancing developmental trajectory in facial processing in controls that may not be present in individuals with ASD.
Keywords
Face recognition, Eye-tracking, Developmental, Visual search
Date
2014
Type
Journal article
Journal
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Book
Volume
8
Issue
5
Page Range
559-569
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled