Aspects of face processing, on the one hand, and theory of mind (ToM)
tasks, on the other hand, show specific impairment in autism. We aimed to
discover whether a correlation between tasks tapping these abilities was
evident in typically developing children at two developmental stages. One
hundred fifty-four normal children (6–8 years and 16–18 years)
and 13 high-IQ autistic children (11–17 years) were tested on a
range of face-processing and IQ tasks, and a ToM test based on the
attribution of intentional movement to abstract shapes in a cartoon. By
midchildhood, the ability accurately and spontaneously to infer the locus
of attention of a face with direct or averted gaze was specifically
associated with the ability to describe geometrical animations using
mental state terms. Other face-processing and animation descriptions
failed to show the association. Autistic adolescents were impaired at both
gaze processing and ToM descriptions, using these tests. Mentalizing and
gaze perception accuracy are associated in typically developing children
and adolescents. The findings are congruent with the possibility that
common neural circuitry underlies, at least in part, processing implicated
in these tasks. They are also congruent with the possibility that autism
may lie at one end of a developmental continuum with respect to these
skills, and to the factor(s) underpinning them.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National
Alliance for Autism Research in funding this work.