Face engagement during infancy predicts later face recognition ability in younger siblings of children with autism

Abstract

Face recognition difficulties are frequently documented in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has been hypothesized that these difficulties result from a reduced interest in faces early in life, leading to decreased cortical specialization and atypical development of the neural circuitry for face processing. However, a recent study by our lab demonstrated that infants at increased familial risk for ASD, irrespective of their diagnostic status at 3 years, exhibit a clear orienting response to faces. The present study was conducted as a follow-up on the same cohort to investigate how measures of early engagement with faces relate to face-processing abilities later in life. We also investigated whether face recognition difficulties are specifically related to an ASD diagnosis, or whether they are present at a higher rate in all those at familial risk. At 3 years we found a reduced ability to recognize unfamiliar faces in the high-risk group that was not specific to those children who received an ASD diagnosis, consistent with face recognition difficulties being an endophenotype of the disorder. Furthermore, we found that longer looking at faces at 7 months was associated with poorer performance on the face recognition task at 3 years in the highrisk group. These findings suggest that longer looking at faces in infants at risk for ASD might reflect early face-processing difficulties and predicts difficulties with recognizing faces later in life.

Early Visual Foraging in Relationship to Familial Risk for Autism and Hyperactivity/Inattention

“…Similarly, the amount of looking towards faces is a predictor of later face recognition when measured at 8 months, but not at 14 months (deKlerk et al, 2014). It is possible that these developmental changes reflect adaptive mechanisms following initial perturbations in brain functioning, mechanisms that eventually mask the perturbations, but not before development has been set on an atypical pathway .…”

Face Perception and Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…The BASIS team found that high risk children (including children with neurotypical outcomes, other developmental concerns, and ASD) who had an older sibling with ASD showed impaired face memory when the to be remembered face differed in facial expression from learning to test but not when the face was identical at the two phases (de Klerk, Gliga, Charman, Johnson, & BASIS Team, 2014) suggesting an impairment in abstraction of configural or gestalt information from the face. Of note, greater attention (i.e., longer looking) toward a face at 7 months of age in a face pop out task was associated with poorer recognition at 3 years of age, but only in the high risk group.…”

Interacción social y comunicación temprana en hermanos de niños con diagnóstico de trastorno del espectro autista: una revisión de la literatura

“…Se concluye que los niños con riesgo de TEA no siempre sienten menos atracción por los rostros o mantienen una actitud de evitación hacia ellos, sino que las dificultades parecen estar en cómo procesan esta información de naturaleza social (Klerk, Gliga, Charman & Johnson, 2014). De igual modo, en tareas como la falsa creencia-tarea que evalúa habilidades cognitivas relacionadas con la Teoría de la Mente (Baron-Cohen, 1991), que explica cómo las personas somos capaces de reconocer que los otros tienen representaciones mentales propias y actuar en base a ello-, la menor puntuación de los niños con riesgo no se debe a su baja atención a la información o a su menor motivación hacia la participación, sino más bien al modo en cómo se procesa la información atendida (Gliga, Senju, Pettinato, Charman & Johnson, 2014;Sumiyoshi, Kawakubo, Suga, Sumiyoshi & Kasai, 2011).…”