title: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder scan own-race faces differently from other-race faces.
abstract: It has been well documented that people recognize and scan other-race faces differently from faces of their own race. The current study examined whether this cross-racial difference in face processing found in the typical population also exists in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants included 5- to 10-year-old children with ASD (n=29), typically developing (TD) children matched on chronological age (n=29), and TD children matched on nonverbal IQ (n=29). Children completed a face recognition task in which they were asked to memorize and recognize both own- and other-race faces while their eye movements were tracked. We found no recognition advantage for own-race faces relative to other-race faces in any of the three groups. However, eye-tracking results indicated that, similar to TD children, children with ASD exhibited a cross-racial face-scanning pattern: they looked at the eyes of other-race faces longer than at those of own-race faces, whereas they looked at the mouth of own-race faces longer than at that of other-race faces. The findings suggest that although children with ASD have difficulty with processing some aspects of faces, their ability to process face race information is relatively spared.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: yilipku@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: Guangzhou Cana School, Guangzhou 510540, China; Guangzhou Rehabilitation and Research Center for Children with ASD, Guangzhou 510540, China.
authors.forename: Yuebo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Guangzhou Cana School, Guangzhou 510540, China; Guangzhou Rehabilitation and Research Center for Children with ASD, Guangzhou 510540, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Logic and Cognition, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Jiao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2X2, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. Electronic address: kang.lee@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D044469:Racial Groups
keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Cross-racial difference; Eye movements; Face processing; Face recognition; Other-race effect