Discrimination of face identities and expressions in children with autism: same or different?

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) characterized by the association of communication and socialization impairments, and by repetitive stereotyped behaviours. The Minnesota Test of Affective Processing (MNTAP) was used to investigate the discrimination of face identities and face expressions by autistic children. Young children in the 6- to 10-year-old age range suffering from PDD were compared to paired normal children. When the expressions on faces remained neutral, autistic patients had more difficulty in distinguishing different faces than in matching the same facial identities in face pairs: they perceived different faces as being identical. However, recognition errors disappeared when expressions were changed together with face identity. When autistic children were asked to distinguish expressions, they discriminated better identity than difference, just as normal children do. Analysis of face and expression discrimination in terms of identity and difference is a novel approach for the understanding of the clinical features of autism. Autistic children seek sameness and use an atypical strategy to analyse human faces and expressions.