title: Global spatial relations in face representations shown in "ecological dyslexia" of Australian Aboriginals and in "Western" dyslexics.
abstract: Two culturally diverse populations, 297 Western European dyslexic youths and 269 Australian Aboriginal school children (80 to 90% of whom meet the operationally defined criteria for "dyslexia") contain a subgroup of similar proportions (35% and 39%, respectively) who on the Draw-A-Person test also show specific "neolithic face" misrepresentation characteristic of the pre-literate period of "neolithic art". By contrast only 8% and 4% respectively of 578 Western European eulexics and of 48 Australian European school children drew such specifically distorted face proportions. These findings suggest a subgroup of dyslexia who show a subtle spatial-relational dysfunction, interpreted as being primarily linked to Aboriginal school children's ecologically determined lack of practice of certain brain systems (particularly of the hippocampus).
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001154:Art; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013028:Space Perception