title: Reduced adaptability, but no fundamental disruption, of norm-based face-coding mechanisms in cognitively able children and adolescents with autism.
abstract: Faces are adaptively coded relative to visual norms that are updated by experience. This coding is compromised in autism and the broader autism phenotype, suggesting that atypical adaptive coding of faces may be an endophenotype for autism. Here we investigate the nature of this atypicality, asking whether adaptive face-coding mechanisms are fundamentally altered, or simply less responsive to experience, in autism. We measured adaptive coding, using face identity aftereffects, in cognitively able children and adolescents with autism and neurotypical age- and ability-matched participants. We asked whether these aftereffects increase with adaptor identity strength as in neurotypical populations, or whether they show a different pattern indicating a more fundamental alteration in face-coding mechanisms. As expected, face identity aftereffects were reduced in the autism group, but they nevertheless increased with adaptor strength, like those of our neurotypical participants, consistent with norm-based coding of face identity. Moreover, their aftereffects correlated positively with face recognition ability, consistent with an intact functional role for adaptive coding in face recognition ability. We conclude that adaptive norm-based face-coding mechanisms are basically intact in autism, but are less readily calibrated by experience.
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: gillian.rhodes@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ewing
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jeffery
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Avard
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Libby
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012016:Reference Values
keywords: Adaptive coding; Autism; Face identity aftereffects; Face recognition; Norm-based coding