title: Impaired body but not face perception in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empirical evidence involving the processing of social information by patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been relatively scarce. Our study investigated the perceptual abilities of patients with OCD to recognize human faces and bodies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-four drug-free or drug-naïve patients with OCD and 42 healthy controls performed discrimination tasks consisting of four types of stimuli: two sets of faces that were manipulated with regard to configuration and features, human bodies, and chairs. The stimuli were presented in upright and upside-down orientations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with OCD were significantly less accurate in discriminating pairs of bodily postures implying actions. However, we found no significant differences between patient and control groups in the ability to recognize faces and chairs. The inversion effects for bodies and faces were also comparable between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current findings suggest that patients with OCD experience difficulty in perceiving static forms of bodily postures, but are able to adequately recognize human faces. Our data indicate a selective deficit in the perception of bodily postures in those with OCD and suggest that this deficit is probably not related to the abnormal configurational processing of social objects.
authors: Interdisciplinary Cognitive Science Program, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Na Young
authors: NY
authors: Shin
authors: Joon Hwan
authors: JH
authors: Jang
authors: Hee Sun
authors: HS
authors: Kim
authors: Geumsook
authors: G
authors: Shim
authors: Jae Yeon
authors: JY
authors: Hwang
authors: Sung Nyun
authors: SN
authors: Kim
authors: Jun Soo
authors: JS
authors: Kwon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult