title: Is that me or my twin? Lack of self-face recognition advantage in identical twins.
abstract: Despite the increasing interest in twin studies and the stunning amount of research on face recognition, the ability of adult identical twins to discriminate their own faces from those of their co-twins has been scarcely investigated. One's own face is the most distinctive feature of the bodily self, and people typically show a clear advantage in recognizing their own face even more than other very familiar identities. Given the very high level of resemblance of their faces, monozygotic twins represent a unique model for exploring self-face processing. Herein we examined the ability of monozygotic twins to distinguish their own face from the face of their co-twin and of a highly familiar individual. Results show that twins equally recognize their own face and their twin's face. This lack of self-face advantage was negatively predicted by how much they felt physically similar to their co-twin and by their anxious or avoidant attachment style. We speculate that in monozygotic twins, the visual representation of the self-face overlaps with that of the co-twin. Thus, to distinguish the self from the co-twin, monozygotic twins have to rely much more than control participants on the multisensory integration processes upon which the sense of bodily self is based. Moreover, in keeping with the notion that attachment style influences perception of self and significant others, we propose that the observed self/co-twin confusion may depend upon insecure attachment.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza," Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Via Ardeatina 306, 00100 Rome, Italy; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Carrer del Rosselló, 149, 08036 Barcelona, Spain; School of Psychology, University of East London, Water Lane, Stratford, London E15 4LZ, United Kingdom.
authors: Matteo
authors: M
authors: Martini
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza," Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Via Ardeatina 306, 00100 Rome, Italy.
authors: Ilaria
authors: I
authors: Bufalari
authors: National Twin Registry-Italian National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors: Maria Antonietta
authors: MA
authors: Stazi
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza," Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Via Ardeatina 306, 00100 Rome, Italy.
authors: Salvatore Maria
authors: SM
authors: Aglioti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D004644:Emotions; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult