Autistic Toddlers see Faces Differently in Photos

Ivanhoe Newswire
Friday, May 4, 2007; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It may be easier for children with autism to look at pictures of faces instead of real, human faces.

A new report from Yale School of Medicine shows toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often find it difficult to focus on people's faces and make eye contact, but they do not have a hard time looking at photographs of faces.

Lead researcher Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D., from the Yale Child Study Center, is quoted as saying, "The results are preliminary and will require further replication and extension, but they suggest that pictures of faces and eyes are, by themselves, neither inherently unattractive nor inherently aversive to toddlers with ASD. Therefore, the limited attention to faces and eyes observed in natural settings may be due to the fact that faces don't stand out to them as much as other objects in the environment."

Dr. Chawarska also said, "There also may be heightened arousal related to the complex social and perceptual context in which faces usually occur." The study also found toddlers with ASD who looked at faces in a similar way as typical toddlers were better at face recognition and less socially impaired.

Researchers say the next step is to look closely at the spatial and temporal characteristic of the children's visual scanning patterns. "While typical and developmentally delayed toddlers move quickly between various inner elements of the face, scanning rapidly between the left and right eye, toddlers with ASD tend to look longer at specific facial features than other children, which might signify an idiosyncratic approach to face processing specific to ASD in early development," Dr. Chawarska said.

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SOURCE: International Meeting for Autism Research in Seattle, Washington, May 3-5, 2007