title: Face-specific and domain-general visual processing deficits in children with developmental prosopagnosia.
abstract: Evidence suggests that face and object recognition depend on distinct neural circuitry within the visual system. Work with adults with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) demonstrates that some individuals have preserved object recognition despite severe face recognition deficits. This face selectivity in adults with DP indicates that face- and object-processing systems can develop independently, but it is unclear at what point in development these mechanisms are separable. Determining when individuals with DP first show dissociations between faces and objects is one means to address this question. In the current study, we investigated face and object processing in six children with DP (5-12-years-old). Each child was assessed with one face perception test, two different face memory tests, and two object memory tests that were matched to the face memory tests in format and difficulty. Scores from the DP children on the matched face and object tasks were compared to within-subject data from age-matched controls. Four of the six DP children, including the 5-year-old, showed evidence of face-specific deficits, while one child appeared to have more general visual-processing deficits. The remaining child had inconsistent results. The presence of face-specific deficits in children with DP suggests that face and object perception depend on dissociable processes in childhood.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Child Development , University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN , USA.|b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, University of Western Australia , Crawley , Australia.
authors.forename: Kirsten A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Dalrymple
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Child Development , University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Jed T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Elison
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences , Dartmouth College , Hanover, NH , USA.
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duchaine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001245:Association Learning; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
keywords: Developmental disorders; Face recognition; Object recognition; Prosopagnosia; Vision