Face Recognition and Visual Search Strategies in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Amending and Extending a Recent Review by Weigelt et al

Julia Tang; Marita Falkmer; Chiara Horlin; Tele Tan; Sharmila Vaz; Torbjörn Falkmer

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134439

Face Recognition and Visual Search Strategies in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Amending and Extending a Recent Review by Weigelt et al

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 7;10(8):e0134439. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134439. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Julia Tang¹, Marita Falkmer², Chiara Horlin³, Tele Tan⁴, Sharmila Vaz³, Torbjörn Falkmer⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), Long Pocket, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
² School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; School of Education and Communication, CHILD programme, Institution of Disability Research Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden; Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), Long Pocket, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
³ School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), Long Pocket, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences (IMH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University & Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, UHL, County Council, Linköping, Sweden; Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), Long Pocket, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to build upon a recent review by Weigelt et al. which examined visual search strategies and face identification between individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing peers. Seven databases, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE, ERIC, Medline, Proquest, PsychInfo and PubMed were used to locate published scientific studies matching our inclusion criteria. A total of 28 articles not included in Weigelt et al. met criteria for inclusion into this systematic review. Of these 28 studies, 16 were available and met criteria at the time of the previous review, but were mistakenly excluded; and twelve were recently published. Weigelt et al. found quantitative, but not qualitative, differences in face identification in individuals with ASD. In contrast, the current systematic review found both qualitative and quantitative differences in face identification between individuals with and without ASD. There is a large inconsistency in findings across the eye tracking and neurobiological studies reviewed. Recommendations for future research in face recognition in ASD were discussed.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Autism Spectrum Disorder / physiopathology*
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials
Eye Movements / physiology*
Facial Recognition / physiology*
Fixation, Ocular
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetoencephalography
Reaction Time

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or preparation of the manuscript. However, the funder approved the decision to publish.