Nature Mental Health, Published online: 29 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44220-026-00672-y
Applying multivariate pattern analysis on pediatric high-density electroencephalography data, the researchers discovered that autistic children displayed less pronounced face- and identity-selective neural representations compared with the neurotypical children. Also, the pattern of increasing neural specialization across age, characteristic for neurotypical children, was absent in autistic children.