Face processing in a case of high functioning autism with developmental prosopagnosia

The ability to “read” the information about facial identity, expressed emotions, and intentions is crucial for non-verbal social interaction. Neuroimaging and clinical studies consequently link face perception with fusiform gyrus (FG) and occipital face area (OFA) activity. Here we investigated face processing in an adult, patient PK, diagnosed with both high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Both disorders have a significant impact on face perception and recognition, thus creating a unique neurodevelopmental condition. We used eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method. Eye-tracking and fMRI results of PK were compared to results of control subjects. Patient PK showed atypical gaze-fixation strategy during face perception and typical patterns of brain activations in the FG and OFA. However, a significant difference between PK and control subjects was found in the left anterior superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus (aSTS/MTG). In PK the left aSTS/MTG was hypo-activated in comparison to the control subjects. Additionally, functional connectivity analysis revealed decreased inter-hemispheric connectivity between right and left aSTS/MTG in ‘ASD and DP’ patient during face recognition performance as compared to the control subjects. The lack of activity in the left aSTS/MTG observed in the case of the clinical subject, combined with the behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuropsychological results, suggests that impairment of the cognitive mechanism of face recognition involves higher level of processing. It seems to be related to insufficient access to semantic knowledge about the person when prompted by face stimuli.