title: Faces do not capture special attention in children with autism spectrum disorder: a change blindness study.
abstract: Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas children with ASD (n = 16) were equally fast in detecting changes in faces and objects. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 (n = 16 in children with ASD and 22 in typically developing children), which does not require face recognition skill. Results suggest that children with ASD lack an attentional bias toward others' faces, which could contribute to their atypical social orienting.
authors.affiliation: University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Senju
authors.forename: Yoshikuni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tojo
authors.forename: Hiroo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Osanai
authors.forename: Toshikazu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology