Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown that children and
adults with autism have impaired face recognition. Individuals with autism
also exhibit atypical event-related brain potentials to faces,
characterized by a failure to show a negative component (N170) latency
advantage to face compared to nonface stimuli and a bilateral, rather than
right lateralized, pattern of N170 distribution. In this report,
performance by 143 parents of children with autism on standardized verbal,
visual–spatial, and face recognition tasks was examined. It was
found that parents of children with autism exhibited a significant
decrement in face recognition ability relative to their verbal and visual
spatial abilities. Event-related brain potentials to face and nonface
stimuli were examined in 21 parents of children with autism and 21 control
adults. Parents of children with autism showed an atypical event-related
potential response to faces, which mirrored the pattern shown by children
and adults with autism. These results raise the possibility that face
processing might be a functional trait marker of genetic susceptibility to
autism. Discussion focuses on hypotheses regarding the neurodevelopmental
and genetic basis of altered face processing in autism. A general model of
the normal emergence of social brain circuitry in the first year of life
is proposed, followed by a discussion of how the trajectory of normal
development of social brain circuitry, including cortical specialization
for face processing, is altered in individuals with autism. The hypothesis
that genetic-mediated dysfunction of the dopamine reward system,
especially its functioning in social contexts, might account for altered
face processing in individuals with autism and their relatives is
discussed.The writing of this paper and the
studies reported herein were funded by a grant from the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD Grant U19HD34565), which is
part of the NICHD Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism, and a
center grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH Grant
U54MH066399), which is part of the NIH STAART Centers
Program.