Archival ReportBasic Abnormalities in Visual Processing Affect Face Processing at an Early Age in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Section snippets
Participants
In total, 29 children diagnosed with ASD and 18 control children with developmental delay but without ASD participated. Seven ASD children (of 29) were excluded because they were not compliant with the EEG procedure and one control child was excluded because of medication use. The final groups comprised 22 children with ASD and 17 control subjects. All children had normal or corrected to normal vision. Information on several diagnostic instruments (30, 31, 32) is presented in Table 1. Details
Grating Task: P1 Amplitude and Latency
Grand averages of the P1 are shown in Figure 1. There was a significant interaction between SF and group [F(1,37) = 9.00, p < .01, η2p = .20] for P1. Further analysis of this interaction indicated that in the ASD group HSF gratings elicited significantly higher P1 amplitudes compared with those in response to LSF gratings [t(21) = −2.12, p < .05, η2p = .18], whereas in control subjects the pattern was reversed—LSF gratings evoked higher P1 amplitudes than HSF gratings [t(16) = 2.30, p < .05, η2p
Discussion
Abnormalities in visual perception in ASD, in particular a more detailed-oriented perception, are seen as primary or at least contributory to problems in face processing in ASD (2, 3, 4, 5, 6). However, there is little knowledge on the role of perceptual abnormalities and its influence on face perception in young children with ASD.
In the present study, we investigated a fundamental aspect of vision that is related to detail perception, namely spatial frequency processing, in young children with
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