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Face Perception in Children with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
Author(s) -
Davies Susan,
Bishop Dorothy,
Manstead Antony S. R.,
Tantam Digby
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1994.tb01808.x
Subject(s) - autism , psychology , asperger syndrome , perception , developmental psychology , developmental disorder , facial expression , communication , neuroscience
— Children with diagnoses of either autism or Asperger's syndrome were matched on measures of verbal mental age with nonautistic control children. They were tested on their abilities to process both facial and nonfacial stimuli. There were no significant differences between the low ability autistic and control groups, but the high ability autistic and Asperger's children performed significantly worse than controls across all tests. Group averages masked substantial individual variation. The results are seen as indicating a general perceptual deficit that is not specific to faces or emotions. This appears to be a common correlate of autism and Asperger's syndrome, rather than a core symptom.