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Neurocognitive and electrophysiological evidence of altered face processing in parents of children with autism: implications for a model of abnormal development of social brain circuitry in autism.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Dawson, G; Webb, SJ; Wijsman, E; Schellenberg, G; Estes, A; Munson, J; Faja, S
Published in: Dev Psychopathol
2005

Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown that children and adults with autism have impaired face recognition. Individuals with autism also exhibit atypical event-related brain potentials to faces, characterized by a failure to show a negative component (N170) latency advantage to face compared to nonface stimuli and a bilateral, rather than right lateralized, pattern of N170 distribution. In this report, performance by 143 parents of children with autism on standardized verbal, visual-spatial, and face recognition tasks was examined. It was found that parents of children with autism exhibited a significant decrement in face recognition ability relative to their verbal and visual spatial abilities. Event-related brain potentials to face and nonface stimuli were examined in 21 parents of children with autism and 21 control adults. Parents of children with autism showed an atypical event-related potential response to faces, which mirrored the pattern shown by children and adults with autism. These results raise the possibility that face processing might be a functional trait marker of genetic susceptibility to autism. Discussion focuses on hypotheses regarding the neurodevelopmental and genetic basis of altered face processing in autism. A general model of the normal emergence of social brain circuitry in the first year of life is proposed, followed by a discussion of how the trajectory of normal development of social brain circuitry, including cortical specialization for face processing, is altered in individuals with autism. The hypothesis that genetic-mediated dysfunction of the dopamine reward system, especially its functioning in social contexts, might account for altered face processing in individuals with autism and their relatives is discussed.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Dev Psychopathol

DOI

ISSN

0954-5794

Publication Date

2005

Volume

17

Issue

3

Start / End Page

679 / 697

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Space Perception
  • Social Perception
  • Phenotype
  • Nerve Net
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality
  • Female
  • Facial Expression
  • Evoked Potentials
 

Citation

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MLA
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Dawson, G., Webb, S. J., Wijsman, E., Schellenberg, G., Estes, A., Munson, J., & Faja, S. (2005). Neurocognitive and electrophysiological evidence of altered face processing in parents of children with autism: implications for a model of abnormal development of social brain circuitry in autism. Dev Psychopathol, 17(3), 679–697. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579405050327
Dawson, Geraldine, Sara Jane Webb, Ellen Wijsman, Gerard Schellenberg, Annette Estes, Jeffrey Munson, and Susan Faja. “Neurocognitive and electrophysiological evidence of altered face processing in parents of children with autism: implications for a model of abnormal development of social brain circuitry in autism.Dev Psychopathol 17, no. 3 (2005): 679–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579405050327.
Journal cover image

Published In

Dev Psychopathol

DOI

ISSN

0954-5794

Publication Date

2005

Volume

17

Issue

3

Start / End Page

679 / 697

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Space Perception
  • Social Perception
  • Phenotype
  • Nerve Net
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality
  • Female
  • Facial Expression
  • Evoked Potentials