The Nature of Face Processing Impairment in Autism - Face Recognition by Autistic People

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Psychology - Miscellaneous, grade: A, Brunel University, language: English, abstract: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterised by social, imaginative and communicative impairments with unusual/restricted behaviours. One such impairment is in the ability to process faces. Face processing is essential for one's social development. It provides vital information, with a core set of facial expressions universally recognised. Research has shown that individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) process faces; they have impaired emotional recognition and abnormal eye fixation. They use different strategies from typically developing (TD) individuals, such as featural processing. Some believe there is a neural basis for this problem; others argue that differences in methodology of testing produce different results. This essay outlines some of these arguments and discusses the nature of face processing impairment in autism.