Murray, H; (2007) Are social cognition deficits present in development prosopagnosics? Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by severe and pervasive impairment of reciprocal social interaction and communication as well as a restricted range of behaviors and interests. A theory by Robert Schultz (Schultz 2005) proposes that the social cognition deficits of these disorders are caused by facial recognition areas that do not develop properly, resulting in the developing child not acquiring an interest in faces and social interactions, and eventually resulting in the impaired social cognitive traits characteristic of ASD subjects. To test this, developmental prosopagnosics were studied in order to investigate whether or not they presented with any social cognition problems, either supporting or rejecting facial processing problems as the cause of social cognition problems in autism spectrum disorders. Two methods were utilized: the first being case studies of two developmental prosopagnosics using autism diagnostic tools and theory of mind tests, and the second being a study of twelve developmental prosopagnosics using an online autism questionnaire and an online theory of mind test. The results show that all twelve subjects did well on the theory of mind tests and only one prosopagnosic scored above the ASD cut-off point on the autism-quotient questionnaire. This demonstrates that impaired face processing does not necessarily lead to social cognition deficits and so suggests that social cognition deficits in ASD are not caused by pre-existing face processing problems.

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