title: Face and location processing in children with early unilateral brain injury.
abstract: Human visuospatial functions are commonly divided into those dependent on the ventral visual stream (ventral occipitotemporal regions), which allows for processing the 'what' of an object, and the dorsal visual stream (dorsal occipitoparietal regions), which allows for processing 'where' an object is in space. Information about the development of each of the two streams has been accumulating, but very little is known about the effects of injury, particularly very early injury, on this developmental process. Using a set of computerized dorsal and ventral stream tasks matched for stimuli, required response, and difficulty (for typically-developing individuals), we sought to compare the differential effects of injury to the two systems by examining performance in individuals with perinatal brain injury (PBI), who present with selective deficits in visuospatial processing from a young age. Thirty participants (mean=15.1 years) with early unilateral brain injury (15 right hemisphere PBI, 15 left hemisphere PBI) and 16 matched controls participated. On our tasks children with PBI performed more poorly than controls (lower accuracy and longer response times), and this was particularly prominent for the ventral stream task. Lateralization of PBI was also a factor, as the dorsal stream task did not seem to be associated with lateralized deficits, with both PBI groups showing only subtle decrements in performance, while the ventral stream task elicited deficits from RPBI children that do not appear to improve with age. Our findings suggest that early injury results in lesion-specific visuospatial deficits that persist into adolescence. Further, as the stimuli used in our ventral stream task were faces, our findings are consistent with what is known about the neural systems for face processing, namely, that they are established relatively early, follow a comparatively rapid developmental trajectory (conferring a vulnerability to early insult), and are biased toward the right hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6330 Alvarado Court, Ste. 103, San Diego, CA 92120-4913, USA; Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0115, USA. Electronic address: Brianna.Paul@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Brianna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA; Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0115, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Appelbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carapetian
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of California School of Medicine, San Diego, 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92103-8224, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hesselink
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, 577 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nass
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California School of Medicine, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0935, USA.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trauner
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA; Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0115, USA.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stiles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception; D065855:Spatial Processing; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Dorsal stream; Face processing; Pediatric stroke; Ventral stream; Visual processing