| The current study examined visual attention during face and object perception and recognition in adolescents with Asperger syndrome as compared to typical adolescents. Point of gaze was monitored while participants viewed human faces, inverted human faces, monkey faces, three-dimensional shapes, and two-dimensional patterns under passive viewing, encoding, and recognition conditions. Neuropsychological and social-emotional assessments were administered and related to measures of visual attention. Contrary to the hypothesis that individuals with autism spectrum disorder exhibit face-specific processing abnormalities, both groups were similar in terms of both visual attention (preferential attention to eyes irrespective of viewing condition) and face recognition ability. For both groups, extended viewing times of the eyes were associated with lower face recognition scores. Among individuals with AS, increased attention to the eyes was associated with improved gender discrimination on an eye-viewing task and proficiency on one face recognition task was associated with social adaptive skill. The results of this study suggest that face processing impairments may not represent a universal deficit in autism spectrum disorder. Future research must elucidate the influences of factors such as social interest, stimulus characteristics, spatial frequency, processing strategy, and intervention history on visual examination and recognition of human faces in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. These findings have important implications for informing clinical interventions. |
