Sensory Processing Patterns and Fusiform Activity During Face Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Adults with autism who avoid sensory input show stronger face-patch brain activity, tying sensory issues to social brain function.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kuno-Fujita et al. (2020) scanned adults with autism while they looked at faces.
They also asked each adult how much they avoid loud lights, strong smells, or scratchy clothes.
The team wanted to know if sensory avoiding scores matched brain activity in the fusiform face area.
What they found
Adults who hate bright lights or itchy tags showed extra right-side fusiform activity when viewing faces.
In plain words, the more they dodge everyday sensations, the harder their face-spotting brain patch works.
How this fits with other research
Chezan et al. (2019) extends this link to kids: children with high sensory avoiding have lower social and school scores.
Adams et al. (2024) shows the flip side in preschoolers: those with ASD already show weaker face-specific brain waves, hinting the fusiform boost may emerge later.
Velasquez et al. (2017) and Eussen et al. (2016) echo the extra fusiform or amygdala activity in adults, confirming atypical face networks across tasks.
Why it matters
If a client pulls away from fluorescent lights, also test how they read faces.
Adding a quick sensory checklist before social-skills training could explain slow progress and guide softer environments.
You might dim lights, cut tags, or use neutral scents to lower sensory load and free up brain power for faces.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a 5-item sensory avoiding questionnaire before your next face-emotion drill and lower room stimuli if scores are high.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
A growing body of evidence has indicated that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit abnormal reactions to sensory stimuli and impaired face processing. Although behavioral studies have reported that individual differences in sensory processing patterns are correlated with performance in face processing tasks, the neural substrates underlying the association between sensory processing patterns and face processing remain unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study examined the relationships between sensory processing patterns assessed with the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) and brain activity during a one-back task with two types of stimuli (face or house pictures). We enrolled 18 Japanese adults with ASD and 19 age- and IQ-matched controls. Sensation Avoiding scores, which were assessed using the AASP, were positively correlated with right fusiform activity during the presentation of pictures of faces in the ASD group, but not in the control group. This suggests that abnormal sensory processing patterns in ASD are associated with abnormal face-related brain activity, possibly resulting in impaired face processing. Autism Res 2020, 13: 741-750. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Sensory abnormalities are one of the most common symptoms in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study shows that individuals with ASD who react abnormally to sensory stimuli also exhibit atypical brain activity when recognizing faces. Abnormal sensory processing may partly explain the difficulty that people diagnosed with ASD have in identifying others' faces.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.008