Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with atypical activation in the ventral stream during face processing. The current study further characterizes the development of face processing in ASD using a multivoxel pattern analysis, which assesses the similarity in the representation of exemplars from the same category. Ninety-two children, adolescents and adults - with and without ASD - performed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Australian Face Memory Test, and a matched car memory test. Regions of interest during these tasks included Fusiform Face Area (FFA), based on the literature, and additional, structurally-defined regions in the ventral stream. Group differences in the patterns of activity within these ROIs when memorizing exemplars were examined using a representational similarity analysis (RSA). The RSA revealed significant interactions between age group and diagnostic group in R FFA, with increasing similarity within a category (faces, cars) into adulthood typically but not in those with ASD. This pattern was also evident in structurally defined ventral stream regions, namely L inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), L inferior temporal lobule, and the R fusiform gyrus. The specialization of face and object processing from adolescence to adulthood evident in typical development may be impaired in ASD, undermining the ability to reach adult-level visual processing in those with ASD.
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