Eye movements in face recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Background: Past research indicated individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrated marked abnormalities in face processing. We examined eye movements in face perception in children with ASD and explored correlations between face recognition performance, planning and global-local perception abilities.Methods:16 ASD and 16 typically developing (TD) primary school children matched with age, gender and non-verbal intelligence underwent two neuropsychological tests that measured planning (as a measure of EF) and global-local perception abilities (as a measure of central coherence) respectively. They also underwent a face recognition task with their eye movements being recorded. Individuals’ eye movements were modeled by Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and categorized into different processing strategy groups by Variational hierarchical EM algorithm(VHEM).Results: Children with ASD processed faces similarly holistic like TD controls and displayed no noticeable difference in planning. However, they were weaker in both global and local processing and showed no local-oriented processing bias. Conclusions: Disparity of performance patterns suggested holistic and global processing could be two separate processes in visual perception. Atypical face perception in ASD could be due to a disinclination to an adaptive processing mode rather than a disability.