How the Brain Learns to Recognize Faces: The Neuroscience of Autism, Social Experience, and the Fusiform Face Area.

By Saida Eazizayene

Face recognition has been a central focus in psychology and visual neuroscience (Liu et al., 2023). Consistent with this body of research, Trontel et al. (2013) provide compelling evidence for the critical role of the fusiform face area (FFA) in face recognition and processing. Their study of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrated decreased FFA activation in response to facial stimuli when compared to typically developing peers. Importantly, this reduction was specific to faces and did not reflect a broader visual-processing deficit. Furthermore, FFA activation was associated with social functioning, suggesting that diminished neural specialization for faces may contribute to the social–perceptual difficulties commonly observed in autism. Together, these findings indicate that typical FFA development is experience-dependent and closely linked to social engagement.

From a developmental perspective, these neural differences are likely to persist into adulthood, although their expression may vary across the lifespan. The FFA undergoes experience-dependent specialization throughout childhood and adolescence, and reduced early attention to faces, as observed in autism, may limit neural tuning, resulting in long-lasting atypical activation patterns. Evidence from longitudinal research and studies of adults with ASD supports the relative stability of these differences over time. Persistence into later adulthood, however, remains less certain, as age-related neural changes may either amplify or obscure autism-specific effects.

Despite this relative stability, emerging evidence suggests that neural plasticity remains possible. Training studies highlight the capacity for experience to modulate face-related neural responses. For example, Liu et al. (2023) demonstrated increased FFA activation and neural adaptation following targeted training, underscoring the potential for experience-driven changes in face-processing networks.

Generalizing the findings of Trontel et al. (2013) to other disorders characterized by social withdrawal, such as major depressive disorder or schizophrenia, should be approached with caution. Although social withdrawal is a common behavioral feature, the underlying mechanisms differ significantly across conditions. In autism, reduced FFA activation reflects early developmental differences in social attention and perceptual specialization. In contrast, face-processing difficulties in major depression are usually mood-related and reversible, while schizophrenia involves broader cognitive and perceptual impairments. Supporting this distinction, de la Torre-Luque et al. (2022) found that the relationship between social withdrawal and facial emotion recognition varies across neuropsychiatric disorders, highlighting disorder-specific neural mechanisms rather than a single shared pathway.

In summary, Trontel et al. (2013) highlight the essential role of the fusiform face area in face recognition and demonstrate how atypical social development in autism can shape neural specialization. While these effects are likely to persist across development, their manifestation may differ throughout the lifespan. When extending these findings to other clinical populations, it is essential to consider distinct neurobiological pathways and disorder-specific mechanisms.

References

De la Torre-Luque, A., Viera-Campos, A., Bilderbeck, A. C., Carreras, M. T., Vivancos, J., Diaz-Caneja, C. M., Aghajani, M., Saris, I. M. J., Raslescu, A., Malik, A., Clark, J., Penninx, B. W. J. H., van der Wee, N., Rossum, I. W., Sommer, B., Marston, H., Dawson, G. R., Kas, M. J., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., & Arango, C. (2022). Relationships between social withdrawal and facial emotion recognition in neuropsychiatric disorders. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 113, Article 110463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110463 

Liu, K., Chen, C.-Y., Wang, L.-S., Jo, H., & Kung, C.-C. (2023). Is increased activation in the fusiform face area to Greebles a result of appropriate expertise training or caused by Greebles’ face likeness? Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17, Article 1224721. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1224721 

Trontel, H. G., Duffield, T. C., Bigler, E. D., Froehlich, A., Prigge, M. B. D., Nielsen, J. A., Cooperrider, J. R., Cariello, A. N., Travers, B. G., Anderson, J. S., Zielinski, B. A., Alexander, A., Lange, N., & Lainhart, J. E. (2013). Fusiform correlates of facial memory in autism. Behavioral Sciences, 3(3), 348–371. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs3030348