Researchers at Yale School of Medicine found that brain signals associated with recognising faces become increasingly specialised as neurotypical children grow older, while comparable changes are considerably less pronounced among autistic children. The findings, published in Nature Mental Health and highlighted by Yale on October 27, suggest that differences emerge earlier during visual processing than previously established.
The investigation examined electroencephalography recordings from 399 children, making it one of the larger studies of neural face processing in autism. Researchers analysed electrical activity across 128 scalp electrodes, applying machine learning techniques to identify how the brain distinguishes faces from other visual information.
James McPartland, Harris Professor at Yale’s Child Study Center and director of its Center for Brain and Mind Health, led the research alongside colleagues from several institutions. Jason Griffin, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston, was the study’s first author.
The scientists discovered that neural representations associated with faces and individual identities were less distinct among autistic participants. Their analysis also identified developmental differences across children aged six to eleven, indicating that face processing follows different patterns during childhood.
Neurotypical participants demonstrated increasingly distinguishable brain responses across three age groups: six to seven, eight to nine, and ten to eleven years. Autistic participants did not exhibit the same age-associated increase in neural specialisation.
The findings could help explain why some autistic people experience difficulties recognising familiar faces, remembering identities or interpreting facial expressions. However, the researchers did not establish that the recorded neural differences directly cause these experiences, which vary considerably between individuals.
“This is the first time we’ve leveraged the full volume of very rich information provided by an EEG recording to understand face perception and autism,” McPartland said.
Earlier investigations generally concentrated on electrical signals from selected recording sites, particularly a response known as N170. This signal typically appears approximately 170 milliseconds after a person sees a face and has been widely examined as a possible indicator of differences in social perception.
The Yale-led analysis examined neural activity across a broader period and a substantially larger network of recording locations. Researchers found evidence that differences associated with autism arise before the N170 response, suggesting that earlier stages of visual information processing deserve closer investigation.
Participants viewed images of faces and other objects while their brain activity was recorded. The researchers then assessed whether computational models could distinguish the different visual categories from patterns of electrical activity.
The models identified more clearly differentiated representations of faces, inverted faces and houses among neurotypical children during particular processing stages. Comparable representations were less distinct among autistic children, revealing differences that conventional measurements might overlook.
“The neural activity that we measure at the scalp is just not as distinct in autistic children,” Griffin said.
The study used information collected through the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials, a collaborative research initiative investigating measurable biological characteristics associated with autism.
Researchers believe the analytical approach could eventually contribute to more precise assessment tools. Nevertheless, the findings do not establish a diagnostic test, and further investigation is required before the technique can be considered for routine clinical use.
The observational design also limits conclusions about individual developmental changes. Comparisons between different age groups cannot demonstrate how each child’s neural responses evolve over time, making longitudinal research important for confirming the reported patterns.
Another investigation published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in May examined brain responses among 50 autistic children, 38 non-autistic children and 26 siblings of autistic children. It identified differences in neural synchronisation during face processing, while finding that several basic sensory responses remained broadly comparable.
Those findings reinforce the importance of examining multiple aspects of brain activity rather than treating facial perception as a single neurological process.
McPartland’s team also emphasised that differences associated with autism should not automatically be interpreted as impairments requiring correction. Individual needs, preferences and experiences remain important when considering support.
The researchers identified potential applications involving facial emotion recognition and personalised social support, although neither intervention effectiveness nor clinical benefits were tested in the study.
The analysis covered neural responses to upright faces, inverted faces and houses, allowing investigators to examine how distinctly children’s brains represented different visual categories and facial identities.
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