Psykologfagligt Selskab for Autisme

Torsdag d. 21. september 2023 17.30-19.45 i Dansk Psykolog Forening, Stockholmsgade 27, København Ø. (Bemærk ændret tidspunkt)

Professor, dr. psych. Christian Gerlach, Syddansk Universitet: Ansigtsblindhed og autisme

Autisme spektrum forstyrrelser (ASF) er neurologisk baserede udviklingsforstyrrelser, der er forbundet med sociale, kommunikative og adfærdsmæssige vanskeligheder. Personer med ASF kan imidlertid også have vanskeligt ved at genkende ansigter og animerede objekter som eksempelvis dyr. Disse vanskeligheder opfattes ofte som en følge af de sociale vanskeligheder.

I det aktuelle projekt udfordrer vi denne forståelse. Vi antager, at problemer med ansigts- og objektgenkendelse ikke (alene) afspejler de sociale vanskeligheder, men derimod en grundlæggende forskel i, hvordan personer med ASF opfatter visuelle indtryk sammenlignet med personer uden ASF.

Vi afprøver denne antagelse gennem en serie af eksperimenter, der tager udgangspunkt i en teori om visuel genkendelse, vi har udviklet de seneste år. Eksperimenterne vil belyse om, og i givet fald hvordan, personer med ASF adskiller sig fra personer uden ASF med hensyn til opmærksomhedsfunktioner og visuel genkendelse af ansigter og objekter.

Hvis vores antagelse understøttes, åbner det for en alternativ forståelse af ASF, hvori de sociale vanskeligheder ikke nødvendigvis er primære, men kan fortolkes som sekundære følger af et mere grundlæggende karakteristika ved den måde, som mange individer med ASF opfatter verden på visuelt.

• Tilmelding: Andre faggrupper kan deltage. Det er ikke muligt at deltage i mødet over internettet. Deltagergebyret omfatter bl.a. en sandwich, kaffe, te og vand. Send en mail med dit navn og ”Fyraftensmøde” til: autisme@dp-decentral.dk senest søndag d. 17. september,
  og indsæt samtidig deltagergebyret på kontonummer 4012359611 i Lån og Spar Bank, registreringsnummer 0400. Pris: 100 kr. for medlemmer af selskabet, 250 kr. for andre.

Du kan med fordel melde dig ind i selskabet. Det gør du i MitDP. Her kan du se en guide til, hvordan du melder dig ind i et selskab.

Medlemskontingentet er 150 kr. om året. Du kan som medlem deltage i arrangementet til reduceret medlemspris på 100 kr. Den samlede pris for deltagelse i fyraftensmødet og medlemskab er 250 kr. Du kan derfor deltage i arrangementet og blive medlem af selskabet i et år til samme pris, som det koster at deltage, hvis du ikke er medlem af selskabet. Som medlem bliver du inviteret til kommende møder og kurser før de bliver annonceret, får betydelig rabat på deltagergebyret og indflydelse på selskabets arbejde. Psykologer og psykologistuderende kan blive medlemmer af selskabet.

Mere om ansigtsblindhed og autisme:
https://www.sdu.dk/da/forskning/genkendelse-af-ansigter-og-genstande
https://www.ansigtsblind.dk/
Christian Gerlach: https://www.ansigtsblind.dk/christian-gerlach
https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/persons/cgerlach

Prosopagnosia and Autism
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is typically thought of as a disorder affecting social functioning. It is less well known that ASD is also associated with difficulties in recognition of faces and animate objects, and when this aspect is addressed, these difficulties are often attributed to social dysfunctions.

In the present project we examine an alternative possibility, namely that recognition deficits for faces and animate objects in individuals with ASD
may reflect alterations in how perceptual input is organized rather than being manifestations of social dysfunction.

To understand the potential impact of this perspective, one needs only to consider how important face recognition and identification of facial expressions are for our ability to interact with other people. Hence, if supported, the new perspective opens for a different conception where some of the social deficits associated with ASD are considered secondary to a more low-level perceptual processing difference.

The present project is theoretically motivated by our previous work with developmental prosopagnosia (face blindness). Hence, I will describe our main findings from this work and explain how it might be relevant for understanding the face recognition difficulties seen in ASD.

ASD covers a broad set of early onset neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders characterized by symptoms reflecting dysfunction in social communication, social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities [1]. While much focus has been on the symptom-triad characterizing ASD [2], it has become increasingly clear that ASD is also associated with visuoperceptual deficits [3-7]. In particular, individuals with ASD exhibit altered perceptual organization in that they, unlike individuals without ASD, place much more weight on details than on global structure [8]. There is, however, also evidence of deficits in higher visual functions such as recognition of animate objects [9, 10] and faces [3, 6].

Two theories have been advanced to account for the perceptual organization irregularities seen in ASD: The weak central coherence theory [11, 12], and the enhanced per – ceptual functioning account [13]. Both frameworks attribute a more locally oriented processing style to individuals with ASD, in comparison with a more globally oriented
style characterizing individuals without ASD.

The evidence supporting differences in global/local processing has nevertheless been inconsistent. A meta-analysis comprising over 1000 individuals with ASD [8] suggests that while global shape processing is altered in ASD, it is not clear how this finding should be interpreted theoretically: Does it for example reflect an attentional or a per –
ceptual difference? It is also not clear if, and then how, the abnormal global/local processing pattern in ASD is related to the abnormalities observed in recognition of ani-
mate objects and faces. What is missing is a theoretical framework that can potentially tie these findings together. One candidate is the PACE model of visual object recognition we have developed over the last 10 years [14, 15].

PACE, which is an abbreviation for Pre-semantic Account of Category Effects, was developed to account for the observation that some patients with brain injury have difficulties in comprehending specific classes of objects such as animate objects; thus, precisely the category that has proven problematic for individuals with ASD. The main idea behind PACE is that seemingly conceptual deficits can be explained by more lowlevel visual factors [16, 17] – hence the name “Pre-semantic” – and this is also how the model has been used by other research groups internationally (for examples see [18, 19]). Recently we have shown that the model can also account for face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosics [20, 21] (individuals who exhibit profound face recognition deficits from childhood [22]), and why individual differences in global/local processing are systematically related to individual differences in face and object recognition [23, 24]. The last aspect is particularly important in the present context because altered global/local processing is precisely what characterizes many individuals with ASD. In short, PACE seems a promising framework for explaining three characteristics in ASD which have hitherto been unlinked: (1) Altered global/local processing, (2) impaired recognition of faces, and (3) animate objects. An understanding of how these three characteristics are linked will provide a novel perspective on ASD.

References
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