Gender Discrimination of Eyes and Mouths by Individuals with Autism

Overview

Journal Autism Res

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2010 May 4

PMID 20437604

Citations 9

Authors

Catherine A Best

Nancy J Minshew

Mark S Strauss

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Evidence remains mixed about whether individuals with autism look less to eyes and whether they look more at mouths. Few studies have examined how spontaneous attention to facial features relates to face processing abilities. This study tested the ability to discriminate gender from facial features, namely eyes and mouths, by comparing accuracy scores of 17 children with autism and 15 adults with autism to 17 typically developing children and 15 typically developing adults. Results indicated that all participants regardless of diagnosis discriminated gender more accurately from eyes than from mouths. However, results indicated that compared to adults without autism, adults with autism were significantly worse at discriminating gender from eyes.

Citing Articles

Spatiotemporal Eye Movement Dynamics Reveal Altered Face Prioritization in Early Visual Processing Among Autistic Children.

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PMID: 39237004 PMC: 11710975. DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.08.017.

Gender Variance Among Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Retrospective Chart Review.

Janssen A, Huang H, Duncan C Transgend Health. 2017; 1(1):63-68.

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Fixation to features and neural processing of facial expressions in a gender discrimination task.

Neath K, Itier R Brain Cogn. 2015; 99:97-111.

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Developmental changes in face visual scanning in autism spectrum disorder as assessed by data-based analysis.

Amestoy A, Guillaud E, Bouvard M, Cazalets J Front Psychol. 2015; 6:989.

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Neurocognitive functioning in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Reinvall O, Voutilainen A, Kujala T, Korkman M J Autism Dev Disord. 2012; 43(6):1367-79.

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