Cited by 52Face Recognition and PerceptionAutism Spectrum Disorder ResearchFace recognition and analysis

Reduced face identity aftereffects in relatives of children with autism

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Fiorentini, Chiara, Gray, Laura, Rhodes, Gillian, Jeffery, Linda, Pellicano, Elizabeth·2012·Neuropsychologia

Abstract

Autism is a pervasive developmental condition with complex aetiology. To aid the discovery of genetic mechanisms, researchers have turned towards identifying potential endophenotypes - subtle neurobiological or neurocognitive traits present in individuals with autism and their "unaffected" relatives. Previous research has shown that relatives of individuals with autism exhibit face processing atypicalities, which are similar in nature albeit of lesser degree, to those found in children and adults with autism. Yet very few studies have examined the underlying mechanisms responsible for such atypicalities. Here, we investigated whether atypicalities in adaptive norm-based coding of faces are present in relatives of children with autism, similar to those previously reported in children with autism. To test this possibility, we administered a face identity aftereffect task in which adaptation to a particular face biases perception towards the opposite identity, so that a previously neutral face (i.e., the average face) takes on the computationally opposite identity. Parents and siblings of individuals with autism showed smaller aftereffects compared to parents and siblings of typically developing children, especially so when the adapting stimuli were located further away from the average face. In addition, both groups showed stronger aftereffects for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average. These results suggest that, in relatives of children with autism, face-coding mechanism are similar (i.e., norm-based) but less efficient than in relatives of typical children. This finding points towards the possibility that diminished adaptive mechanisms might represent a neurocognitive endophenotype for autism.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.08.019

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  • A robust finding is reduced repetition suppression in response to repeated presentation of faces in autism spectrum disorder.

    “A robust finding in these studies is a reduction in the amount of repetition suppression seen in response to the repeated presentation of faces, again suggestive of altered activation in visual cortical regions involved in face processing (Ewbank et al., 2014; Fiorentini et al., 2012).”

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Authors
Fiorentini, C., Gray, L., Rhodes, G., Jeffery, L., & Pellicano, E.
Affiliations
  • Australian National University (AU)
  • University of London (GB)
  • The University of Western Australia (AU)
Corresponding author
Fiorentini, Chiara
Venue
Neuropsychologia
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-10
Volume
50
Issue
12
Pages
2926-2932
ISSN
0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2033984518
Cited by
52
References
56
Citations by year
2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 1
FWCI
3.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • IOE EPrints (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
  • ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • The Clothworkers’ Foundation and Pears Foundation
  • Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CE110001021)
  • Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship
  • Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0770923)
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 processing, endophenotypes, face perception, parents and siblings
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Autistic Disorder, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Discrimination, Psychological, Face, Female, Figural Aftereffect, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Parents, Visual Perception, Case-Control Studies, Siblings, Endophenotypes

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