title: Impaired recognition of faces and objects in dyslexia: Evidence for ventral stream dysfunction?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to establish whether or not dyslexics are impaired at the recognition of faces and other complex nonword visual objects. This would be expected based on a meta-analysis revealing that children and adult dyslexics show functional abnormalities within the left fusiform gyrus, a brain region high up in the ventral visual stream, which is thought to support the recognition of words, faces, and other objects.
  
  
  METHODS
  20 adult dyslexics (M = 29 years) and 20 matched typical readers (M = 29 years) participated in the study. One dyslexic-typical reader pair was excluded based on Adult Reading History Questionnaire scores and IS-FORM reading scores. Performance was measured on 3 high-level visual processing tasks: the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test, and the Vanderbilt Expertise Test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  People with dyslexia are impaired in their recognition of faces and other visually complex objects. Their holistic processing of faces appears to be intact, suggesting that dyslexics may instead be specifically impaired at part-based processing of visual objects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The difficulty that people with dyslexia experience with reading might be the most salient manifestation of a more general high-level visual deficit.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Iceland.
authors: Heida Maria
authors: HM
authors: Sigurdardottir
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Iceland.
authors: Eysteinn
authors: E
authors: Ívarsson
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Iceland.
authors: Kristjana
authors: K
authors: Kristinsdóttir
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Iceland.
authors: Árni
authors: Á
authors: Kristjánsson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult