title: Neurocognitive and electrophysiological evidence of altered face processing in parents of children with autism: implications for a model of abnormal development of social brain circuitry in autism.
abstract: Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown that children and adults with autism have impaired face recognition. Individuals with autism also exhibit atypical event-related brain potentials to faces, characterized by a failure to show a negative component (N170) latency advantage to face compared to nonface stimuli and a bilateral, rather than right lateralized, pattern of N170 distribution. In this report, performance by 143 parents of children with autism on standardized verbal, visual-spatial, and face recognition tasks was examined. It was found that parents of children with autism exhibited a significant decrement in face recognition ability relative to their verbal and visual spatial abilities. Event-related brain potentials to face and nonface stimuli were examined in 21 parents of children with autism and 21 control adults. Parents of children with autism showed an atypical event-related potential response to faces, which mirrored the pattern shown by children and adults with autism. These results raise the possibility that face processing might be a functional trait marker of genetic susceptibility to autism. Discussion focuses on hypotheses regarding the neurodevelopmental and genetic basis of altered face processing in autism. A general model of the normal emergence of social brain circuitry in the first year of life is proposed, followed by a discussion of how the trajectory of normal development of social brain circuitry, including cortical specialization for face processing, is altered in individuals with autism. The hypothesis that genetic-mediated dysfunction of the dopamine reward system, especially its functioning in social contexts, might account for altered face processing in individuals with autism and their relatives is discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington Autism Center and Center on Human Development and Disability, Seattle 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.forename: Sara Jane
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wijsman
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schellenberg
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Estes
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Munson
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Faja
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010641:Phenotype; D012938:Social Perception; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology