Ventura Martina, Manippa Valerio, Caffò Alessandro Oronzo, Cicinelli Giovanni, Nobile Emanuela, Keller Roberto, Rivolta Davide
The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 May 16. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06879-9.
Accurate face recognition is crucial for navigating social interactions. While neurotypical individuals generally show no issues with face processing, persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit impairments in this area. This study explores the extent of these face recognition deficits in autistic adults, focusing on their ability to identify famous faces, along with the awareness (metacognition) of their face recognition skills. Using the Italian Famous Face Test (IT-FFT) and the Prosopagnosia Index-20 (PI-20), to compare face recognition performance and self-awareness of face recognition abilities between 50 non-autistic and 49 individuals diagnosed with level 1 ASD. Autistic people had significantly lower face identification scores and greater difficulties recognizing famous faces than non-autistic participants. Additionally, autistic individuals reported more face recognition challenges on the PI-20, highlighting their awareness of these deficits. These findings suggest that face recognition impairments in ASD extend to famous faces and underscore the importance of further research to explore targeted interventions aimed at improving different aspects of face recognition in autistic people.
准确的人脸识别对于社交互动至关重要。虽然神经典型个体在面部处理方面通常没有问题，但自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者在这方面常常表现出缺陷。本研究探讨了自闭症成年人中这些人脸识别缺陷的程度，重点关注他们识别名人面孔的能力以及对自己人脸识别技能的认知（元认知）。使用意大利名人面孔测试（IT-FFT）和面孔失认症指数-20（PI-20），比较50名非自闭症个体和49名被诊断为1级ASD的个体之间的人脸识别表现和人脸识别能力的自我认知。与非自闭症参与者相比，自闭症患者的面部识别分数显著更低，识别名人面孔的困难更大。此外，自闭症个体在PI-20上报告了更多的人脸识别挑战，突出了他们对这些缺陷的认知。这些发现表明，ASD中的人脸识别障碍延伸到名人面孔，并强调了进一步研究以探索旨在改善自闭症患者人脸识别不同方面的针对性干预措施的重要性。
