A Nature Mental Health study of about 400 autistic children reports that face-related brain signals sharpen with age in neurotypical children but change far less in autistic children, with differences appearing earlier than once thought.
A new study published in Nature Mental Health reports that the brains of autistic children respond to human faces differently from those of neurotypical children. The work, led by James McPartland of Yale's Child Study Center with first author Jason Griffin of the University of Houston, drew on about 400 autistic children and used electroencephalography (EEG) to record electrical activity. Unlike earlier studies that examined limited scalp regions, the team analysed signals from all 128 electrodes while children viewed pictures of faces and everyday objects.
The researchers applied machine-learning methods to test whether the recordings could reveal what a child was looking at. According to the authors, face-viewing could be identified more clearly from brain activity in neurotypical children than in autistic children, and this ability improved with age only in the neurotypical group. The data came from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials. The team also found differences emerging before the N170 signal, a response about 170 milliseconds after seeing a face that earlier research had focused on, suggesting differences arise at earlier stages of visual processing.
The authors describe the result as a first step toward a possible biomarker and say more research is needed before any clinical use. They note that many autistic people need no additional support, and that earlier research has shown forcing eye contact is not an effective approach. If confirmed, the findings could help guide earlier, better-targeted support for children who find recognising faces or reading expressions difficult. The details here are as reported by the researchers through their institutions; the study's conclusions have not been independently replicated.
