Aspies For Freedom

The difficulties people with autism have in relating to others could be due to poor communication between brain areas, scientists suggest.

It may explain why they do not interact well, as the weak links mean they benefit less from social situations.

It had been thought that their lack of social skills was due to abnormalities in particular brain areas.

The study in Neuroimage, carried out by University of London researchers, compared brain scans of 32 people.

The researchers took brain scans of 16 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and above-average IQs, as well as those of 16 unaffected volunteers.

They were shown four images on the screen - two of houses and two of faces. They were then asked to concentrate on either the faces or houses and decide if they were identical.

Scans showed there were marked differences in the brain activity of the two groups.

In the control group, paying attention to pictures of faces caused a significant increase in brain activity.

But for people with ASD, paying attention to faces made no impact at all on the brain, explaining their lack of interest in faces.

Both groups had the same reaction to houses.

Dr Geoff Bird, at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, who led the research, said: "The standard view of social problems in ASD is that there is a problem in the part of the brain that processes faces.

"Our research suggests that this is not the real problem - it seems to be that paying attention to faces doesn't lead to the normal increase in brain activity.

"This is because the face-processing areas of the brain are not well connected to those parts of the brain that control attention - such as the frontal and parietal regions.

"We all know that it is harder to pick a face out of a busy crowd, for instance, but when we do find the right face and pay attention to it, we are easily able to tune-out all the other distractions and focus on that one face.

"It seems that, for people with ASD, paying attention to a face is much harder to do and doesn't have the same effect."

Richard Mills, director of research for the National Autistic Society, said: "We welcome this research, which examines the underlying mechanisms related to complex 'instinctive' social responses.

"We know that many people with ASD have particular difficulties in this area and we are hopeful that an improved understanding of these processes will enable people to receive appropriate and helpful support."

[source:  http://news.bbc.  co.uk/1/hi/health/4888528.stm ]

It seems to be saying here -

"Our research suggests that this is not the real problem - it seems to be that paying attention to faces doesn't lead to the normal increase in brain activity.

"This is because the face-processing areas of the brain are not well connected to those parts of the brain that control attention - such as the frontal and parietal regions."

That we are focusing less on faces, and giving them equal focus to other things. I dont see that as a negative, just a difference.

In fact 'weak' connections could be an advantage if its stops someone from picking up magazines just because they have a celebrity face on the cover.

Sounds like a healthy AS obsession.

:roll: Explaining, or due to?  People need to be more careful about what conclusions they draw and especially what they say about them.  

It cannot possibly be a surprise that faces don't cause the same increase in brain activity as they do in normals, especially with the number of us who are faceblind.  You mean to suggest that I have trouble recognizing faces because I don't think very hard about them?  What a freakin bombshell!  I can't believe somebody actually paid for this.  I can't believe somebody was paid to write about this.  I can't believe somebody paid to have it put on the internet.  

Really.  They could have figured this out sitting around smoking pot.  
"Hey, man, I think autistics, like, don't think about faces too much.  Maybe they have like, weak brain links or something."  
"Whoa dude! Write that down!  We should, like, tell somebody or something."

Really. They could have figured this out sitting around smoking pot.
"Hey, man, I think autistics, like, don't think about faces too much. Maybe they have like, weak brain links or something."
"Whoa dude! Write that down! We should, like, tell somebody or something."

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

The underconnectivity theory has been around for ages.

Bloomin' NT cookie-cutter faces!  My colleagues at work think it's hysterically funny that I really can't tell the difference between people except by their hairstyles, height and sound of voice.  Yeah, laugh it up, real funny.
Alison (who obviously had a Bad Day at work)

If autistics are wired to find faces uninteresting, then why are we known to be eye contact avoiders? I don't think it's just the case that we aren't interested in eyes, as some aspies describe eye contact as positively unpleasant. That is one reason why I find this study to be hard to believe. Another reason why I find this study odd is that it reports the same difference from the controls in all of the autistic subjects in the study, while not all autistics are face-blind.

I dont know what the hell my brain is doing when it comes to faces.  I usually have no problem with them but there are exceptions and I have no idea what those are :p

Example : a mobile phone advert where a guy's hair style changed according to the music he downloaded - it took me ages before I figured out it was the same person.  Also a recent episode of Dalziel and Pascoe (detective series) had the story centred round a group of friends and I couldnt distinguish between them.

Faces are usually no problem at all but every now and again theres a situation like that where I'm completely clueless.  I think i'll mention it next time I see the psychologist.

Say what you want, I'll always remember the time I spent four hours in the stratosphere trying to figure out if there was a relationship between a circle's radius and its circumference.  Didn't know what to call it, so I settled on "cake" because I was hungry.  I even made up a little symbol with lines suggesting candles.  

As for genuine discomfort looking at faces (I get this sometimes with eyecontact too, but not as often) is it possible that that's a separate condition?  Or maybe it's related to the sonsory aversions?

I might stress that this forum is not for discussing illegal (or some places legal) drugs.  I do not use, nor have I, nor will I.  Please take your addiction problems to an appropriate forum.  

I once did some test to see if I was more right brained or left brained.  I scored more centre brained so really how could autism be caused by lack of communication between hemispheres of the brain.  I think rather I am more sensitive and there is usually too much going on in my brain rather unlike some of the thug headed NT's I sometimes observe.  What is going on in their brains?  Probably not much.

Good point M.

Having discussed this with Amy, I've decided to delete the worst of the drug related replies (or at least the ones that have no relevance to the main topic).  This site cannot be seen to condone such behaviour.

If you have any problems or comments regarding the action then you are welcome to PM me.

People could make a specific poll or thread concerning drug use in the philosophy forum, to cover ethical, moral, and legal issues, as long as it wasnt outright promotion of illegal activity.

That's interesting. I have not noticed a difference between males and female faces being easier.

I wonder of someone finds a face more attractive that its easier to remember?
Could be an interesting test.


I found it impossible to watch a tv show last week where the main characters were literally like twins, I didnt even realise they were 2 different people until they were next to each other on screen. :roll:

Oh yeah, isn't that the pits?  I have such trouble following some shows because the characters all look the same.
Alison