Visual search strategies during facial recognition in children with ASD

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.

Face perception develops similarly across viewpoint in children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

“…This strategy may be more flexible or underdeveloped in childhood and only impact performance once it is established in adulthood. Studies examining face perception with eye-tracking methods have found that children and adults with ASD use atypical local and global strategies (e.g., Albrecht et al, 2014;Falkmer, Larsson, Bjällmark, & Falkmer, 2010). Specifically, compared to TD children, some studies have shown that children with ASD fixate more on individual features, such as the eyes and mouths, but show no differences in recognition accuracy (Albrecht et al, 2014).…”

“…Studies examining face perception with eye-tracking methods have found that children and adults with ASD use atypical local and global strategies (e.g., Albrecht et al, 2014;Falkmer, Larsson, Bjällmark, & Falkmer, 2010). Specifically, compared to TD children, some studies have shown that children with ASD fixate more on individual features, such as the eyes and mouths, but show no differences in recognition accuracy (Albrecht et al, 2014). In contrast, others have demonstrated that adults with ASD fixate more on irrelevant facial features than eyes and perform poorer than neurotypical adults (Falkmer et al, 2010).…”

Design and application of an immersive virtual reality system to enhance emotional skills for children with autism spectrum disorders

“…A large number of strategies used in educational intervention for students with ASD are based on transferring information using visual aids and materials. There is research to support that these students have a tendency towards visual and structured thinking (Lissner, 1992;Gray, 1998;Savner & Smith Myles, 2000;Albrecht, et al 2014). Later works of Grandin (2009) state that visual supports can have an indirect as well as a direct impact on social skills.…”