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Impaired Visual Scanning and Memory for Faces in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders: It's Not Just the Eyes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2011

Joseph Snow ,
John E. Ingeholm ,
Ilana F. Levy ,
Rachel A. Caravella ,
Laura K. Case ,
Gregory L. Wallace  and
Alex Martin
Joseph Snow*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
John E. Ingeholm
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Ilana F. Levy
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Rachel A. Caravella
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Laura K. Case
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Gregory L. Wallace
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Alex Martin
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Joseph Snow, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Drive, Room 3N222, Bethesda, MD 20892. E-mail: joseph.snow@nih.gov
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Abstract

Prior studies suggest that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with a domain-specific memory impairment for faces. The underlying cause of this problem and its relation to impaired visual scanning of faces—particularly of the eyes—remains to be determined. We recorded eye movements while 22 high-functioning ASD and 21 typically developing (TD) adolescents encoded and later recognized faces and objects from a single, nonsocial object category (electric fans). Relative to TD subjects, ASD individuals had poorer memory for faces, but not fans. Correlational analyses showed significant relationships between recognition memory and fixations. Eye tracking during encoding revealed that TD subjects made more fixations to faces than fans, whereas ASD individuals did not differ in number of fixations made to each stimulus type. Moreover, although both the TD and ASD groups showed a strong preference for fixating the eyes more than the mouth, the ASD subjects were less likely than TD subjects to scan regions of the face outside of the primary facial features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth). We concluded that ASD individuals have a domain-specific memory impairment for faces relative to mechanical objects and that this impairment may be related to abnormal scanning during encoding. (JINS, 2011, 17, 1021–1029)

Keywords

Autistic disorderAsperger's syndromeFace processingMemoryEye trackingDomain-specificity
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 6 , November 2011 , pp. 1021 - 1029
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

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