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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Perception Science
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1462272
This article is part of the Research Topic Processing of Face and Other Animacy Cues in the Brain View all articles

Face processing in animal models: Implications for autism spectrum disorder

Provisionally accepted
Paola Sgadò Paola Sgadò 1*Alessandra Pross Alessandra Pross 1Jacopo Lamanna Jacopo Lamanna 2Alice Adiletta Alice Adiletta 1*
  • 1 Centre for Mind and Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
  • 2 Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and Communication (BNC), Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milano, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Processing facial features is crucial to identify social partners (prey, predators, or conspecifics) and recognize and accurately interpret emotional expressions. Numerous studies in both human and non-human primates provided evidence promoting the notion of inherent mechanisms for detecting facial features. These mechanisms support a representation of faces independent of prior experiences and are vital for subsequent development in social and language domains. Moreover, deficits in processing faces are a reliable biomarker of autism spectrum disorder, appearing early and correlating with symptom severity. Face processing, however, is not only a prerogative of humans: other species also show remarkable face detection abilities. In this review, we present an overview of the current literature on face detection in vertebrate models that could be relevant to the study of autism.

    Keywords: Face detection, social orienting, Domestic chick., neurodevelopemntal disorders, Valproic Acid

    Received: 09 Jul 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sgadò, Pross, Lamanna and Adiletta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Paola Sgadò, Centre for Mind and Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, 38068, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
    Alice Adiletta, Centre for Mind and Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, 38068, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

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