Autistic children showed earlier and less age-related refinement in the brain signals involved in processing faces. In neurotypical children, those signals also became increasingly refined with age, but the same developmental pattern did not appear in autistic children. They then used machine learning to determine whether patterns in the brain activity could predict what each participant was viewing. They found no comparable age-related change in the brain activity of autistic children. Face processing differences begin earlierThe results also change scientists’ understanding of when differences in autistic face processing first emerge.