Beyond social awkwardness: Problems with “reading” faces?

Feelings of awkwardness at a party are not limited to the teenage scene. Remember the guy who won’t look at you when he talks but mumbles as he gazes at his shoelace or the more unnerving fellow who gets too close and breathes into your face as he talks? Many people suffer from problems interacting with others. At the extreme, these people may be labeled with autism, Asperger disorder, and socio-emotional processing disorders; see About Social Developmental Disorders on the next page. What makes social interactions so difficult for these people?

In a recent study, published in this issue of Neurology, Rebecca Hefter et al.¹ suggest that problems with social interactions may be related to problems learning how to interpret faces. One of the ways we judge a person’s emotional state is by “reading” his/her facial expression. During a conversation, “reading” your listener’s expression helps you judge whether he/she understands or is interested in what you are saying. Without this ongoing assessment and modification of what you are saying, a conversation may become awkward, ineffective or worse.

Hefter’s group suggests that people with social developmental disorders (SDD) have difficulties identifying faces and interpreting facial expression. To test this idea, they studied 26 adults with a number of different types of SDD. Information was obtained for each person regarding developmental history and emotional adjustment. Special attention was given to their use of eye contact, facial expression and gestures. Each person took a standardized intelligence test. Then, they took a special test to see if they recognized famous people. Pictures of 20 famous and 20 non-famous faces were shown to each subject. The task was to separate the pictures into groups of familiar and unfamiliar faces, and to name the familiar faces, …