Does Autism have some distinct facial features?

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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162- ... res-study/

I kind of ponder this since you can grab many people who are neurotypical who can look like that. Cerebral Palsy and Down's Syndrome have obvious facial features, but I won't believe that there are distinct facial features in Autism until I have more of a reason to believe it.

61 people isn't a very reliable study.

There are plenty of beautiful people out int the world, with and without Autism. I highly doubt appearance is a contributing factor.

I have always thought this was the case. I think a lot of AS people have big foreheads and often have big mouths (pun not intended, but appreciated). I think I have these features too.

Honestly, although I'm not basing it on any science, I often look at people and think I can diagnose their conditions just by seeing their faces. AS, celiac, diabetes, paranoia. I can often tell if someone is republican or democrat just by looking at their face for a few seconds.

Of course, I might be completely delusional, and I don't usually have any way of confirming my judgements. On the other hand, in the small number of cases when I do get to confirm my judgements I am right probably 80% of the time. And now that everyone is arguing about politics all the time I am POSITIVE about my ability to see many peoples politics after looking at their face for a few seconds (this is only the case for some people. There are tons of people that I would have no idea about).

I always assumed that most people could do this, and so this article seems like a No Duh thing to me. Maybe I actually have a hidden skill. A mostly useless hidden skill.

I have an NT uncle who looked like Mick Avory before he lost all his hair. I look like Mick and I'm an Aspie. As I see it, people on the spectrum end up looking like one of their relatives or another.

I think I read somewhere that people with Asperger's supposedly look young or physically attractive, but anyone can look that way! I personally see no obvious superficial differences that make a person "look autistic". It's like they're just trying to add to the label they want stamped on each of us. Yeah, right now I have this mental image of people walking passively through a hallway wearing white shirts with words like SCHIZOPHRENIC and AUTISTIC and BI-POLAR...

I doubt this is exactly going to change the world... The study only included 61 people and they were all boys. Females can be aspies too! I don't think the study is very reliable and even if it is, so what? Plenty of people, NTs and Aspies, will have these facial features. It doesn't really mean anything.

The wide foreheads and wide set eyes thing is stupid because it's common knowledge that people with ASD are more likely to have big heads. No one knows what that means yet. It's just an incidental thing that tends to be true. And of course if you have a big ol' head it makes sense for the stuff ON the head to spread out!

People with autism tend to look younger than other people and are often perceived as being more attractive because of the facial slackness. Or a "relaxed face" might be a nicer way to say this. Wrinkles don't form as easily and others may see an aspie face as being innocent and passive. I'm sure there are lots of 40+ ladies who would pay a lot of money for an injection of aspie around the eyes! LOL

Oh Christ, this post again. I believe the consensus was something like "if there were any kind of distinct facial features brought on by AS it is likely due to a lack of musculature in the face due to little or no use of facial expression."

Here's the whole study. What I found most interesting is that they identified 2 different looks, and thought they corresponded to different levels of functioning. It would be much more interesting with adults of all genders.
Blaming it on just lack of muscle tone, as some do here, is not very reliable either because how much muscle tone does any average kid have? They're not old enough for it to make much difference either way.
We can't just outright reject that there may be some facial features that are more common in ASD, as how would we know if not through studies on it? Can't dismiss this or future research based on our own anecdotal data. If the brain is shaped differently, why not other parts? It is not so far-fetched.

Our differences might be because we're more neotenized? As that is a key feature in how humans have evolved that would lead to some very interesting conclusions... It would fit with the already acknowledged bigger head/youthful appearance thing.

The wide foreheads and wide set eyes thing is stupid because it's common knowledge that people with ASD are more likely to have big heads. No one knows what that means yet. It's just an incidental thing that tends to be true. And of course if you have a big ol' head it makes sense for the stuff ON the head to spread out!

People with autism tend to look younger than other people and are often perceived as being more attractive because of the facial slackness. Or a "relaxed face" might be a nicer way to say this. Wrinkles don't form as easily and others may see an aspie face as being innocent and passive. I'm sure there are lots of 40+ ladies who would pay a lot of money for an injection of aspie around the eyes! LOL

No, there aren't.
You can't say I have Asperger's just by looking at my face.
I met people with ASD, and I couldn't say they were autistic just by looking at their faces.

I don't have any of those facial features. I always had quite a long-ish face even as a child, although my face did not significantly different, it was just the way I looked, the same as everyone has their own looks. I don't think there are these Autism features.
The only Autistic features I have commonly seen among different children with Autism that I have seen/met, is having a really big mouth (physically, not as in ''loud''), but even then it might just be a coincidence. I've always had a small mouth, smaller than average (which I've always hated).

As for the big forehead and ''squashed face'' thing, I don't think that's to do with having Autism. It's just a look some people have, I've seen/met a lot of non-Autistics that have that kind of shape face. If that was true, then Ant and Dec must both be Autistic.....

Don't understand why people are so angry, the study found some things in common, no big deal. They all look like normal people to me and that's the important thing.

I think this is fascinating and wish there was more studies done on this.