Editing Face perception (section)

==Autism==
[[File:Autism-stacking-cans edit.jpg|alt=Photograph of a child with autism stacking cans.|thumb|A child with autism]]
[[Autism spectrum disorder]] is a comprehensive neural developmental disorder that produces social, communicative,<ref name="tanakabook">{{cite book|last=Tanaka|first=J.W.|title=The development of face processing|year=2003|publisher=Hogrefe & Huber Publishers|location=Ohio|isbn=9780889372641|pages=101–119|author2=Lincoln, S.|author3=Hegg, L.|editor=Schwarzer, G.|editor2=Leder, H.|chapter=A framework for the study and treatment of face processing deficits in autism}}</ref> and perceptual deficits.<ref name="Behrmann">{{cite journal|last1=Behrmann|first1=Marlene|last2=Avidan|first2=Galia|last3=Leonard|first3=Grace Lee|last4=Kimchi|first4=Rutie|last5=Luna|first5=Beatriz|last6=Humphreys|first6=Kate|last7=Minshew|first7=Nancy|title=Configural processing in autism and its relationship to face processing|journal=Neuropsychologia|date=January 2006|volume=44|issue=1|pages=110–129|doi=10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.04.002|pmid=15907952|citeseerx=10.1.1.360.7141|s2cid=6407530 }}</ref> Individuals with autism exhibit difficulties with facial identity recognition and recognizing emotional expressions.<ref name="Schreibman">{{cite book|last=Schreibman|first=Laura|title=Autism|year=1988|publisher=Sage Publications|location=Newbury Park|isbn=978-0803928091|pages=14–47}}</ref><ref name="Weigelt">{{cite journal|last=Weigelt|first=Sarah|author2=Koldewyn, Kami|author3=Kanwisher, Nancy|title=Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: A review of behavioral studies|journal=Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews|year=2012|volume=36|issue=3|pages=1060–84|doi=10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.008|pmid=22212588|s2cid=13909935}}</ref> These deficits are suspected to spring from abnormalities in early and late stages of facial processing.<ref name="Dawson">{{cite journal|last=Dawson|first=Geraldine|author2=Webb, Sara Jane|author3=McPartland, James|title=Understanding the nature of face processing impairment in autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies|journal=Developmental Neuropsychology|year=2005|volume=27|pages=403–424|pmid=15843104|doi=10.1207/s15326942dn2703_6|issue=3|citeseerx=10.1.1.519.8390|s2cid=2566676}}</ref>

===Speed and methods===
People with autism process face and non-face stimuli with the same speed.<ref name=Dawson /><ref name=Kita>{{cite journal|last=Kita|first=Yosuke|author2=Inagaki, Masumi|title=Face recognition in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder|journal=Brain and Nerve|year=2012|volume=64|pages=821–831|pmid=22764354|issue=7}}</ref>

In non-autistic individuals, a preference for face processing results in a faster processing speed in comparison to non-face stimuli.<ref name="Dawson" /><ref name="Kita" /> These individuals use [[global precedence|holistic processing]] when perceiving faces.<ref name="Behrmann" /> In contrast, individuals with autism employ part-based processing or [[top-down and bottom-up design|bottom-up processing]], focusing on individual features rather than the face as a whole.<ref name="Grelotti">{{cite journal|last1=Grelotti|first1=David J.|last2=Gauthier|first2=Isabel|last3=Schultz|first3=Robert T.|title=Social interest and the development of cortical face specialization: What autism teaches us about face processing|journal=Developmental Psychobiology|date=April 2002|volume=40|issue=3|pages=213–225|doi=10.1002/dev.10028|pmid=11891634|citeseerx=10.1.1.20.4786 }}</ref><ref name="Riby">{{cite journal|last=Riby|first=Deborah|author2=Doherty-Sneddon Gwyneth|title=The eyes or the mouth? Feature salience and unfamiliar face processing in Williams syndrome and autism|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology|year=2009|volume=62|issue=1|pages=189–203|doi=10.1080/17470210701855629|pmid=18609381|last3=Bruce|first3=Vicki|hdl=1893/394|s2cid=7505424|hdl-access=free}}</ref> People with autism direct their gaze primarily to the lower half of the face, specifically the mouth, varying from the eye-trained gaze of non autistic people.<ref name="Grelotti" /><ref name="Riby" /><ref name="Joseph">{{cite journal|last=Joseph|first=Robert|author2=Tanaka, James|title=Holistic and part-based face recognition in children with autism|journal=Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry|year=2003|volume=44|issue=4|pages=529–542|doi=10.1111/1469-7610.00142|pmid=12751845|citeseerx=10.1.1.558.7877}}</ref><ref name="Langdell">{{cite journal|last1=Langdell|first1=Tim|title=Recognition of Faces: An approach to the study of autism|journal=Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry|date=July 1978|volume=19|issue=3|pages=255–268|doi=10.1111/j.1469-7610.1978.tb00468.x|pmid=681468 }}</ref><ref name="Spezio">{{cite journal|last=Spezio|first=Michael|author2=Adolphs, Ralph|author3=Hurley, Robert|author4= Piven, Joseph|title=Abnormal use of facial information in high functioning autism|journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders|date=28 September 2006|volume=37|issue=5|pages=929–939|doi=10.1007/s10803-006-0232-9|pmid=17006775|s2cid=13972633}}</ref> This deviation does not employ the use of facial [[prototype theory|prototypes]], which are templates stored in memory that make for easy retrieval.<ref name="Weigelt" /><ref name="textbook">{{cite book|last=Revlin|first=Russell|title=Cognition: Theory and Practice|year=2013|publisher=Worth Publishers|isbn=9780716756675|pages=98–101}}</ref>

Additionally, individuals with autism display difficulty with [[recognition memory]], specifically memory that aids in identifying faces. The memory deficit is selective for faces and does not extend to other visual input.<ref name=Weigelt /> These face-memory deficits are possibly products of interference between face-processing regions.<ref name=Weigelt />

===Associated difficulties===
Autism often manifests in weakened social ability, due to decreased eye contact, [[joint attention]], interpretation of emotional expression, and communicative skills.<ref name=Triesch>{{cite journal|last1=Triesch|first1=Jochen|last2=Teuscher|first2=Christof|last3=Deak|first3=Gedeon O.|last4=Carlson|first4=Eric|title=Gaze following: Why (not) learn it?|journal=Developmental Science|year=2006|volume=9|issue=2|pages=125–157|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00470.x|pmid=16472311|url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8fm3k5xc|access-date=5 February 2019|archive-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009001822/http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8fm3k5xc|url-status=live}}</ref>

These deficiencies can be seen in infants as young as nine months.<ref name="Dawson" /> Some experts use 'face avoidance' to describe how infants who are later diagnosed with autism preferentially attend to non-face objects.<ref name="tanakabook" /> Furthermore, some have proposed that autistic children's difficulty in grasping the emotional content of faces is the result of a general inattentiveness to facial expression, and not an incapacity to process emotional information in general.<ref name="tanakabook" />

The constraints are viewed to cause impaired social engagement.<ref name="Volkmar">{{cite journal|last1=Volkmar|first1=Fred|last2=Chawarska|first2=Kasia|last3=Klin|first3=Ami|title=Autism in infancy and early childhood|journal=Annual Review of Psychology|year=2005|volume=56|pages=315–6|doi=10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070159|pmid=15709938}}</ref> Furthermore, research suggests a link between decreased face processing abilities in individuals with autism and later deficits in [[Theory of Mind|theory of mind]]. While typically developing individuals are able to relate others' emotional expressions to their actions, individuals with autism do not demonstrate this skill to the same extent.<ref name="grosbois">{{cite book|last1=Nader-Grosbois|first1=N.|last2=Day|first2=J.M.|editor1=Matson, J.L.|editor2=Sturmey, R.|title=International handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders|year=2011|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|location=New York|isbn=9781441980649|pages=127–157|chapter=Emotional cognition: theory of mind and face recognition}}</ref>

This causation, however, resembles the [[chicken or the egg]] dispute. Some theorize that social impairment leads to perceptual problems.<ref name=Grelotti/> In this perspective, a biological lack of social interest inhibits facial recognition due to under-use.<ref name=Grelotti/>

=== Neurology ===
Many of the obstacles that individuals with autism face in terms of facial processing may be derived from abnormalities in the [[fusiform face area]] and [[amygdala]].

Typically, the [[fusiform face area]] in individuals with autism has reduced volume.<ref name="Pierce">{{cite journal|last1=Pierce|first1=K.|last2=Müller|first2=RA|last3=Ambrose|first3=J|last4=Allen|first4=G|last5=Courchesne|first5=E|title=Face processing occurs outside the fusiform 'face area' in autism: evidence from functional MRI|journal=Brain|date=1 October 2001|volume=124|issue=10|pages=2059–73|doi=10.1093/brain/124.10.2059|pmid=11571222 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Grelotti" /> This volume reduction has been attributed to deviant amygdala activity that does not flag faces as emotionally salient, and thus decreases activation levels.

Studies are not conclusive as to which brain areas people with autism use instead. One found that, when looking at faces, people with autism exhibit activity in brain regions normally active when non-autistic individuals perceive objects.<ref name=Grelotti /> Another found that during facial perception, people with autism use different neural systems, each using their own unique neural circuitry.<ref name=Pierce />

===Compensation mechanisms===
As autistic individuals age, scores on behavioral tests assessing ability to perform face-emotion recognition increase to levels similar to controls.<ref name=Dawson /><ref name=Harms />

The recognition mechanisms of these individuals are still atypical, though often effective.<ref name="Harms">{{cite journal|last1=Harms|first1=Madeline B.|last2=Martin|first2=Alex|last3=Wallace|first3=Gregory L.|title=Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies|journal=Neuropsychology Review|date=September 2010|volume=20|issue=3|pages=290–322|doi=10.1007/s11065-010-9138-6|pmid=20809200|s2cid=24696402 }}</ref> In terms of face identity-recognition, compensation can include a more pattern-based strategy, first seen in [[Global precedence#Face inversion|face inversion]] tasks.<ref name="Langdell" /> Alternatively, older individuals compensate by using mimicry of others' facial expressions and rely on their motor feedback of facial muscles for face emotion-recognition.<ref name="Wright">{{cite journal|last1=Wright|first1=Barry|last2=Clarke|first2=Natalie|last3=Jordan|first3=Jo|last4=Young|first4=Andrew W.|last5=Clarke|first5=Paula|last6=Miles|first6=Jeremy|last7=Nation|first7=Kate|last8=Clarke|first8=Leesa|last9=Williams|first9=Christine|title=Emotion recognition in faces and the use of visual context Vo in young people with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders|journal=Autism|date=November 2008|volume=12|issue=6|pages=607–626|doi=10.1177/1362361308097118|pmid=19005031|s2cid=206714766 }}</ref>