title: Face processing in children with autism spectrum disorder: independent or interactive processing of facial identity and facial expression?
abstract: The current study investigated if deficits in processing emotional expression affect facial identity processing and vice versa in children with autism spectrum disorder. Children with autism and IQ and age matched typically developing children classified faces either by emotional expression, thereby ignoring facial identity or by facial identity disregarding emotional expression. Typically developing children processed facial identity independently from facial expressions but processed facial expressions in interaction with identity. Children with autism processed both facial expression and identity independently of each other. They selectively directed their attention to one facial parameter despite variations in the other. Results indicate that there is no interaction in processing facial identity and emotional expression in autism spectrum disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, FB 06, Otto-Behaghel-Street 10/F1, 35394, Giessen, Germany. Julia.Krebs@psychol.uni-giessen.de
authors.forename: Julia F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.forename: Ajanta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pascalis
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kamp-Becker
authors.forename: Helmuth
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Remschmidt
authors.forename: Gudrun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schwarzer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological