The Difference Of Face Processing Between The Same Age And Different Age Face In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder:An Eye Movement Study

One of the focuses of research on Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD)is its processing of socially relevant stimuli,(such as faces)(Kovarski,et al.,2019).Face,as an important social factor in social interaction,has been a research hotspot in recent years.Some domestic and foreign studies have shown that there is own-age effect in Typically Developing(TD)individual’s face cognitive processing,which shows the attention advantage of own age faces.The own age effect refers to the phenomenon that individuals are superior to own age faces in cognitive processing such as perception and memory of faces.Previous studies have found that the specific performance of children with ASD in face processing has not reached a consistent conclusion,which may be affected by the age factor in the experimental materials,and there is no research to explore the own age effect of face processing in children with ASD.Therefore,by conducting an eye movement study on the characteristics of own age effect in the face processing of ASD children,,and exploring the influence of face age on the face cognitive processing of ASD children,the cognitive mechanism of social communication defects in ASD children can be better revealed.The purpose of this study is through the present different age model(adult/child)face images,using eye tracking technology,investigating the effect of face age on the attention pattern of children with ASD.To explore whether there is the own age effect in the face processing of children with ASD,and under different emotional faces,whether there is the own age effect and eye movement processing difference in the face processing of children with ASD.Experiment 1 explored whether there was the own age effect in face processing of children with ASD.21 children with ASD and 25 children with TD were selected.24 neutral faces of the own age and other age were presented,and eye movement tracking technology was adopted to let them watch freely.The results showed that the own age effect of face processing existed in ASD children,but not in TD children.In experiment 2,22 children with ASD and 25 children with normal development were allowed to freely watch 48 faces of expression of happy,anger and fear at the own age and other ages.Eye movement tracking results showed that there was still the own effect in the face of fear and anger,while there was no own age effect in the face of happy.Meanwhile,the results showed that there was no face processing own age effect in the face of TD children with different emotional types.The results of this study show that there is the own age effect of face processing in children with ASD,and under the emotional face,the age of the face will affect the own age effect of children with ASD.At the same time,there is no own age effect of face processing in TD children.