Het verwerken van gezichten bij mensen met autisme

Autistic children frequently have difficulties in the ability to perceive faces, which is a skill essential for social communication. Early attentional processing might be compromised and atypical brain activation in response to faces has been reported. These anomalies may point to fundamental pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning issues concerning face processing. Nevertheless it is unclear how these anomalies develop as function of age, and the central coherence theory, the eye-avoidance theory, and the social motivation theory fail to explain all the details of the face recognition defi cit. In this perspective the double empathy problem is discussed. Intervention programs based on computer games and reward seem promising.