A new study led by UBC Faculty of Medicine researchers has found that many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a unique visual experience with the faces around them, tending to view faces from further away and from side angles, while having less exposure to familiar faces on a day-to-day basis.
The findings, published in Current Biology, may help explain why some people with ASD experience challenges with facial recognition and processing, and points to strategies that could help individuals strengthen these skills.
It is the first study to empirically measure how adults with ASD see faces, leveraging more than 360 hours of first-person footage from eyewear-embedded cameras worn by participants.
“Face recognition and processing skills play an important role in social interactions and the development of relationships,” says senior author Dr. Ipek Oruc, an associate professor in UBC’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and investigator at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. “By revealing how people with ASD see and experience faces, this study sheds new light on how we can help people develop skills in these critical areas.”
The ability to recognize and process faces develops gradually over time, with frequent exposure to familiar faces playing an important role. While previous research has shown that some people with ASD do not develop the same level of facial recognition skills as those without ASD, the exact reason for this difference remains unknown.
After analyzing the video footage, Dr. Oruc and her team found that adults with ASD were exposed to faces 30 per cent less often than adults without ASD. This was mainly due to less exposure to familiar faces, like friends and family. Both groups encountered a similar number of unfamiliar faces, such as strangers in public places.
The researchers also found that people with ASD tend to view faces from farther away. For instance, familiar faces were viewed on average 229.77 cm (around 7.5 feet) away by people with ASD, while adults without ASD saw them on average 115.87 cm (about 3.8 feet).
The difference in viewing distance is important because larger faces are easier to recognize and seeing faces at close distances is believed to be an important factor in developing face recognition skills.
Face recognition and processing skills play an important role in social interactions and the development of relationships.
Dr. Ipek Oruc
“Our findings suggest that people with ASD may have face viewing experiences that are different from typical social interactions,” notes first author Dr. Todd Kamensek, who recently graduated from UBC’s Graduate Program in Neuroscience. “This could explain why people with autism may have difficulties recognizing faces.”
The study also found that people with ASD were more likely to see familiar faces from side profile rather than straight on. Overall, the study suggests that how people with ASD see faces — both in terms of distance and angle — may impact the development of strong facial recognition skills.
As a result, Dr. Oruc and her team highlight the potential benefits of face recognition training programs to help people with ASD improve these skills. Randomized control trials have suggested that face recognition training programs can help improve holistic processing, emotion recognition, face recognition memory and social skills.
“Together, these studies highlight the potential effectiveness of face training programs in promoting more efficient face processing strategies and mitigating some social difficulties,” says Dr. Oruc.
A version of this story was originally published on the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health website.