Face processing and its role in the social phenotype of autism spectrum disorders has gained a significant amount of attention in the past decade. The components involved in the processing and use of information from the face represent a network of systems that are complex. This article shows that face processing is neither a simple process nor one that is universally abnormal in individuals with autism. Several complementary processes that may contribute to impairment in face processing in individuals with autism (...) are described. It includes lower-level visual processing, visual attention, early-stage processing of faces, memory for faces, and the emotional significance of faces. The variability in performance on face processing tasks by individuals with ASD reflects an underlying variability in ability in face processing in the ASD spectrum, making face processing a model system for understanding the nature of social impairment in ASD. (shrink)

We use a new model of metarepresentational development to predict a cognitive deficit which could explain a crucial component of the social impairment in childhood autism. One of the manifestations of a basic metarepresentational capacity is a ‘ theory of mind ’. We have reason to believe that autistic children lack such a ‘ theory ’. If this were so, then they would be unable to impute beliefs to others and to predict their behaviour. This hypothesis was tested using Wimmer (...) and Perner’s puppet play paradigm. Normal children and those with Down’s syndrome were used as controls for a group of autistic children. Even though the mental age of the autistic children was higher than that of the controls, they alone failed to impute beliefs to others. Thus the dysfunction we have postulated and demonstrated is independent of mental retardation and specific to autism. (shrink)