Abnormal adaptive face-coding mechanisms in children with autism spectrum disorder
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In low-level vision, exquisite sensitivity to variation in luminance is achieved by adaptive mechanisms that adjust neural sensitivity to the prevailing luminance level. In high-level vision, adaptive mechanisms contribute to our remarkable ability to distinguish thousands of similar faces [1]. A clear example of this sort of adaptive coding is the face-identity aftereffect [2, 3, 4, 5], in which adaptation to a particular face biases perception toward the opposite identity. Here we investigated face adaptation in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by asking them to discriminate between two face identities, with and without prior adaptation to opposite-identity faces. The ASD group discriminated the identities with the same precision as did the age- and ability-matched control group, showing that face identification per se was unimpaired. However, children with ASD showed significantly less adaptation than did their typical peers, with the amount of adaptation correlating significantly with current symptomatology, and face aftereffects of children with elevated symptoms only one third those of controls. These results show that although children with ASD can learn a simple discrimination between two identities, adaptive face-coding mechanisms are severely compromised, offering a new explanation for previously reported face-perception difficulties [6, 7, 8] and possibly for some of the core social deficits in ASD [9, 10].
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In one author's prior study, autistic children initially showed a significantly reduced perceptual aftereffect for faces compared with nonautistic children of similar age and ability, as if that was a sign of a functional deficit.
“In that study, she initially reported that autistic children showed a significantly reduced perceptual after effect for faces compared with nonautistic children of similar age and ability, as if that was a sign of a functional deficit (Pellicano, Jeffery, Burr, & Rhodes, 2007).”
From Annual Research Review: Shifting from ‘normal science’ to neurodiversity in autism science (2022) · cites this paper as Pellicano, Jeffery, Burr, & Rhodes, 2007
Children with autism spectrum disorder show a reduced face-identity aftereffect, indicating they are less affected by previous sensory experience.
“In this study, children with ASD showed a reduced face-identity aftereffect, indicating that they were less affected by previous sensory experience.”
From Behavioral, Perceptual, and Neural Alterations in Sensory and Multisensory Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015) · cites this paper as Pellicano et al., 2007
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- Authors
- Pellicano, E., Jeffery, L., Burr, D., & Rhodes, G.
- Affiliations
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Pellicano, Elizabeth
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-09
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 17
- Pages
- 1508-1512
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2018035752
- Cited by
- 184
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 3.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Face recognition and analysis
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, face perception, face adaptation, face coding, face identity discrimination, children, visual adaptation, social dysfunction
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Adolescent, Autistic Disorder, Child, Discrimination, Psychological, Face, Figural Aftereffect, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Case-Control Studies, Asperger Syndrome, Recognition, Psychology
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