摘要:
本文主要从两个角度综述自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者的FFA研究进展。首先是FFA的面孔加工功能，研究发现与正常人相比，自闭症患者FFA神经元对面孔的选择性存在定量的区别，而不是定性的区别：即ASD患者的面孔缺陷很可能与其自身FFA神经元对面孔的选择性密切相关，选择性越低，面孔加工能力越弱；此外，前人将FFA的功能从面孔加工拓展到了视觉专家，近来也有研究者发现ASD患者的有限兴趣可以增强其视觉专家的能力。未来的研究可以从FFA的面孔加工功能出发，结合其他脑区，探讨ASD患者大脑面孔加工网络的机制；也可从采用ASD被试，结合奖赏回路等其他相关脑区，进一步探究FFA的面孔加工和视觉专家功能背后共同的神经机制。
Abstract:
This paper reviews the studies of Fusiform Face Area (FFA) in patients with Autism Spectrum Dis-orders (ASD) from two perspectives. First, we reviewed fMRI researches about face processing and FFA on patients with ASD. It’s found that face processing in ASD appears to rely on FFA as in typical individuals, differing quantitatively but not qualitatively. That is, face processing deficits of ASD may correlate with FFA neural selectivity and the little selectivity, the worse performance. In ad-dition, previous study extended the function of FFA from face processing to expertise. Recent re-search showed that restricted interest in patients with ASD could enhance expertise through FFA study. From the perspective of face processing of FFA, future research could combine FFA with other brain regions to explore the network mechanism of face processing in patients with ASD. Also, researchers can integrate FFA with reward circuits or other related brain areas to explore corporate mechanism of face processing and visual expertise by recruiting ASD patients.