Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom.
University of Reading, United Kingdom.
Autism. 2024 Nov;28(11):2937-2942. doi: 10.1177/13623613241272031. Epub 2024 Aug 18.
Research has shown that some autistic people have severe difficulties in recognising other people's faces. However, little is understood about how these difficulties impact the daily life and the mental well-being of autistic people. In this study, we asked 60 autistic adults with varying degrees of face recognition ability to complete two tests of face recognition, a questionnaire about social anxiety and a bespoke survey which asked participants about their experiences of face recognition and social interaction. We found that participants who had poor face recognition reported experiencing higher levels of social anxiety compared to those with average or better face recognition skills. More than half felt that their face recognition difficulties affected their social interactions, and over a third believed it hindered their ability to make friends. These findings suggest that face recognition difficulties may contribute to social anxiety among autistic individuals.
研究表明，一些自闭症患者在识别他人面部方面存在严重困难。然而，对于这些困难如何影响自闭症患者的日常生活和心理健康，人们知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们要求 60 名具有不同程度人脸识别能力的自闭症成年人完成两项人脸识别测试、一份关于社交焦虑的问卷和一份专门的调查，询问参与者他们在人脸识别和社交互动方面的体验。我们发现，与具有平均或更好人脸识别技能的参与者相比，人脸识别能力较差的参与者报告的社交焦虑水平更高。超过一半的人认为他们的人脸识别困难影响了他们的社交互动，超过三分之一的人认为这阻碍了他们交朋友的能力。这些发现表明，人脸识别困难可能是自闭症个体社交焦虑的一个因素。
