Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2011 Jul;41(7):968-73. doi: 10.1007/s10803-010-1115-7.
The current study investigated whether contrasting face recognition abilities in autism and Williams syndrome could be explained by different spatial frequency biases over developmental time. Typically-developing children and groups with Williams syndrome and autism were asked to recognise faces in which low, middle and high spatial frequency bands were masked. All three groups demonstrated a gradual specialisation toward the mid-band. However, while the use of high spatial frequencies decreased in control and autism groups over development, the Williams syndrome group did not display a bias toward this band at any point. These data demonstrate that typical outcomes can be achieved through atypical developmental processes, and confirm the importance of cross-syndrome studies in the investigation of developmental disorders.
本研究旨在探讨自闭症和威廉姆斯综合征患者在面孔识别能力上的差异是否可以通过不同的空间频率偏向来解释。研究要求正常发育的儿童以及患有威廉姆斯综合征和自闭症的儿童识别低频、中频和高频三种空间频率带宽的人脸。所有三组儿童都表现出逐渐向中频带宽的专业化倾向。然而，尽管控制组和自闭症组在发育过程中高频空间频率的使用逐渐减少，而威廉姆斯综合征组在任何时候都没有表现出对该频段的偏向。这些数据表明，典型的结果可以通过非典型的发育过程来实现，并证实了在研究发育障碍时进行跨综合征研究的重要性。
