Implications of holistic face processing in autism and schizophrenia.

Tamara L. Watson

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00414

Abstract

People with autism and schizophrenia have been shown to have a local bias in sensory processing and face recognition difficulties. A global or holistic processing strategy is known to be important when recognizing faces. Studies investigating face recognition in these populations are reviewed and show that holistic processing is employed despite lower overall performance in the tasks used. This implies that holistic processing is necessary but not sufficient for optimal face recognition and new avenues for research into face recognition based on network models of autism and schizophrenia are proposed.

Highlights

People with autism and schizophrenia have been shown to have a local bias in sensory processing and face recognition difficulties
Suggesting that the patient population may have engaged in some automatic global processing but not been able to switch strategy to make use of it when it was useful. Similar to this result people with schizophrenia are sometimes shown to be impaired in tasks where a local bias should facilitate performance
On the whole, even when large group level impairments in face processing are apparent, the results from participants with autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or schizophrenia do not show a strong suggestion of a selective lack of holistic/configurational face processing

Summary

Introduction

People with autism and schizophrenia have been shown to have a local bias in sensory processing and face recognition difficulties. Similar to this result (and unlike those found with participants with autism) people with schizophrenia are sometimes shown to be impaired in tasks where a local bias should facilitate performance.

Results

Conclusion