Editing Face perception (section)

===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 />