Background: Recognition of individual faces is an integral part of interpersonal interactions and successful functioning within a social group. It is, therefore, of considerable interest that individuals with autism and related conditions have selective deficits in face recognition (sparing nonface object recognition). Method: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study face and subordinate-level object perception in 14 high functioning individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome (the “Autism group”), in comparison to two groups of matched normal controls (NC1 and NC2; n= 14 in each). Regions of interest (ROIs) were defined in NC1 and then applied in comparisons between NC2 and the Autism group. ROIs were also defined in NC2 and then applied to comparisons between NC1 and the Autism group as a replication study.

Results: In the first set of comparisons, we found significant task by group interactions for the size of activation in the right fusiform gyrus (FG), and right inferior temporal gyri (ITG). Post hoc analyses showed that during face (but not object) discrimination the Autism group had significantly greater activation than controls in the right ITG and less activation of the right FG. The replication study showed again that the Autism group used the ITG significantly more for processing faces than the controls, but for these analyses the side of the effect was now on the left. Greater ITG activation was the pattern found in both control groups during object processing. Conclusions: Individuals with autism spectrum disorders demonstrate a pattern of brain activity during face discrimination that is consistent with feature-based strategies that are more typical of nonface object perception.