Understanding the nature of face processing impairment in autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies

This article reviews behavioral andelectrophysiological studies of faceprocessingand discusses hypotheses for understanding the nature of face processing impairments in autism. Based on results of behavioral studies, this studydemonstrates that individuals with autism have impaired face discrimination and recognition and use atypical strate-gies for processing faces characterized by reduced attention to the eyes and piecemeal rather than configural strategies. Based on results of electrophysiological studies, this article concludes that face processing impairments are present early in autism, by 3 years of age. Such studies have detected abnormalities in both early (N170 reflecting structural encoding) and late (NC reflecting recognition memory) stages of face pro-cessing. Event-related potential studies of young children and adults with autism have found slower speed of processing of faces, a failure to show the expected speed advan-tageofprocessingfacesversusnonfacestimuli, andatypical scalp topographysuggest-ing abnormal cortical specialization for face processing. Other electrophysiological studies have suggested that autism is associated with early and late stage processing impairments of facial expressions of emotion (fear) and decreased perceptual binding as reflected in reduced gamma during face processing. This article describes two types of hypotheses—cognitive/perceptual and motivational/affective—that offer frame-works for understanding the nature of face processing impairments in autism. This article discusses implications for intervention. Autism is a disorder characterized by impairments in social and communicative behavior and a restricted range of interests and behaviors. Although there is great variability in symptom severity and intellectual functioning among individ