Face processing in autistic vs' nonautistic people'

1
Face processing in autistic vs. non-autistic
people.

• University of Connecticut
• Psychology 254
• Kathryn Kimball
• Cynthia Rosenwald
• Cindy Cadette
• Daniel Belonick

2
Fusiform Gyrus (FG)

• FG activated while viewing faces in normal
  humans.
• Fusiform Face Area (FFA) is specialized for face
  perception, located within FG.
• Areas surrounding FG, such as Inferior Temporal
  Gyrus (ITG), are activated for object perception.
• FMRIs show FFA hypoactive in autistics.

3
Face/Object recognition task (Pierce et al, 2001)

• Method
• - Participants exposed to alternating face/shape
  perception task.

4
FG/STS Amygdala Activation (Pierce et al, 2001)
5
Schultz et al (2003)

• Method
• non-autistic subjects
• Viewed short films showing moving objects. In the
  second, they were presented with faces.
• Bumper Car Movie
• Social Triangle Movie

6
FFA activation in non-autistic individuals
(Schultz et al, 2003)
7
Same/Different Recogntion Task (Schultz et al,
2000)

• Method
• - Test subjects on same/different recognition
  tasks
• for faces, objects, or patterns.
• - compare autistic versus control non-autistic
• performance and fMRI activity
• Findings
• - Controls better on face recognition tasks
• - No activation of FG with faces in autistic
  group,
• but Infer-Temporal Gyrus (ITG) activation
  present .

8
FMRI Face/Object Activation Areas
Face
Object

• Control groups 1 2 have
• proper activation areas for
• face and object recognition
• The Autistic group shows
• different areas of activation
• for both face object
• recognition.

Control 1
Control 2
Autistic Group
Schultz et al (2000), figure 3.
9
Findings in Facial Recognition
10
Conclusions

• Autistics use object recognition when viewing
  faces.
• Social cues from FG Amygdala are decreased.
• Impaired social responses and activity.

11
References

• Pierce, K., Muller, R.A., Ambrose, J., Allen, G.
  Courchesne, E. (2001). Face processing occurs
  outside the fusiform face area in autism
  evidence from functional MRI. Brain 124,
  2059-2073
• Schultz, R.T., Gauthier, I., Klin, A., Fulbright,
  R.K., Anderson, A.W., Volkmar, F., Skudlarski,
  P., Lacadie, C., Cohen, D.J. Gore, J.C.
  (2000). Abnormal ventral temporal cortical
  activity during face discriminations among
  individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome.
  Archives of General Psychiatric. 37, 331-340
• Schultz, R.T., Grelotti, D.J., Klin, A.,
  Kleinman, J., Van der Gaag, C., Marois, R.
  Skudlarski, P (2003). The role of the fusiform
  face area in social cognition Implications for
  the pathobiology of autism. Philosophical
  Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, 358,
  415-427.
• www.info.med.yale.edu/chldstudy/neuroimg/sat_movie
  s.htm
• http//www.autisminfo.com/
• www.picturepage.net