Faces Do Not Capture Special Attention in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Change Blindness Study

Authors: Kikuchi, Yukiko¹; Senju, Atsushi²; Tojo, Yoshikuni³; Osanai, Hiroo⁴; Hasegawa, Toshikazu¹

Source: Child Development, Volume 80, Number 5, September/October 2009 , pp. 1421-1433(13)

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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.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01342.x

Affiliations: 1: University of Tokyo, Tokyo 2: Birkbeck, University of London, London 3: Ibaraki University, Ibaraki 4: Musashino Higashi Gakuen, Tokyo

Publication date: 2009-09-01