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Facial recognition in children after perinatal stroke
1Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0935, USA.
Summary
Prenatal or perinatal stroke can subtly impair facial recognition skills in children and young adults, with parietal lobe damage having a significant negative impact regardless of lesion side.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Right-hemisphere dominance is established for facial recognition in adults.
- Facial recognition abilities in children with early focal brain damage are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of prenatal or perinatal stroke on facial recognition in children and young adults.
- To determine if early-onset lesions cause different facial recognition deficits compared to later-onset neurological impairments.
Main Methods:
- Forty subjects with unilateral pre- or perinatal stroke lesions (20 left, 20 right hemisphere) and 40 matched controls were assessed.
- Facial recognition was evaluated using the Short-Form of Benton's Test of Facial Recognition.
- Data analysis involved Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test and multiple regression.
Main Results:
- Subjects with brain lesions performed significantly worse on facial recognition than controls.
- Left-hemisphere lesions led to poorer performance, while right-hemisphere lesions showed a trend toward impairment.
- Parietal lobe involvement negatively impacted facial recognition, irrespective of the lesion's side.
Conclusions:
- Unilateral brain damage from early strokes causes subtle facial recognition disturbances, independent of lesion laterality.
- Parietal lobe damage specifically impairs facial recognition skills.
- Findings suggest the parietal lobes are crucial for early facial recognition development, with potential for brain reorganization.