Response to familiar faces, newly familiar faces, and novel faces as assessed by ERPs is intact in adults with autism spectrum disorders
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Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have pervasive impairments in social functioning, which may include problems with processing and remembering faces. In this study, we examined whether posterior ERP components associated with identity processing (P2, N250 and face-N400) and components associated with early-stage face processing (P1 and N170) are atypical in ASD. We collected ERP responses to a familiar repeated face (Familiar), an unfamiliar repeated face (Other) and novel faces (Novels) in 29 high-functioning adults with ASD and matched controls. For both groups, the P2 and N250 were sensitive to repetition (Other vs. Novels) and personal familiarity (Familiar vs. Other), and the face-N400 was sensitive to repetition. Adults with ASD did not show significantly atypical processing of facial familiarity and repetition in an ERP paradigm, despite showing significantly poorer performance than controls on a behavioral test of face memory. This study found no evidence that early-stage facial identity processing is a primary contributor to the face recognition deficit in high-functioning ASD.
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Not all studies found decreased repetition suppression to faces in ASD.
“However, not all studies found decreased repetition suppression to faces in ASD (Webb et al., 2010).”
From Are prediction error modifications domain specific in autism but domain general in ADHD? (2025) · cites this paper as Webb et al., 2010
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Self-citationAre prediction error modifications domain specific in autism but domain general in ADHD?
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“However, not all studies found decreased repetition suppression to faces in ASD ( Webb et al., 2010).”
- Authors
- Webb, S. J., Jones, E. J. H., Merkle, K., Murias, M., Greenson, J., Richards, T., Aylward, E., & Dawson, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Webb, Sara J.
- Venue
- International Journal of Psychophysiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-08
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 106-117
- ISSN
- 0167-8760 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2902604
- OpenAlex
- W1971952330
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- International Journal of Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
- University of Washington (WA 98195)
- National Institute of Mental Health (U54MH066399)
- 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 recognition (cognition), face familiarity, face memory, event-related potentials, N400, N250, P2, N170, P1, high-functioning adults, social cognition
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Evoked Potentials, Face, Female, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult
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