Ashwin Chris, Wheelwright Sally, Baron-Cohen Simon
Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, 18b Trumpington Road, Cambridge CB2 2AH, UK.
Brain Cogn. 2006 Jun;61(1):78-95. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2005.12.008. Epub 2006 Feb 7.
Social threat captures attention and is processed rapidly and efficiently, with many lines of research showing involvement of the amygdala. Visual search paradigms looking at social threat have shown angry faces 'pop-out' in a crowd, compared to happy faces. Autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS) are neurodevelopmental conditions characterised by social deficits, abnormal face processing, and amygdala dysfunction. We tested adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) and AS using a facial visual search paradigm with schematic neutral and emotional faces. We found, contrary to predictions, that people with HFA/AS performed similarly to controls in many conditions. However, the effect was reduced in the HFA/AS group when using widely varying crowd sizes and when faces were inverted, suggesting a difference in face-processing style may be evident even with simple schematic faces. We conclude there are intact threat detection mechanisms in AS, under simple and predictable conditions, but that like other face-perception tasks, the visual search of threat faces task reveals atypical face-processing in HFA/AS.
社会威胁会吸引注意力，并能快速有效地被处理，许多研究表明杏仁核参与其中。与快乐面孔相比，关注社会威胁的视觉搜索范式显示，愤怒面孔在人群中会“突显”出来。自闭症和阿斯伯格综合征（AS）是神经发育障碍，其特征是社交缺陷、面部处理异常和杏仁核功能障碍。我们使用带有示意性中性和情绪化面孔的面部视觉搜索范式对高功能自闭症（HFA）和AS成人进行了测试。与预测相反，我们发现HFA/AS患者在许多情况下的表现与对照组相似。然而，当使用差异很大的人群规模以及面孔倒置时，HFA/AS组的这种效应会减弱，这表明即使是简单的示意性面孔，面部处理方式的差异可能也很明显。我们得出结论，在简单且可预测的条件下，AS中存在完整的威胁检测机制，但与其他面部感知任务一样，威胁面孔的视觉搜索任务揭示了HFA/AS中存在非典型的面部处理。
