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Face processing and facial emotion recognition in adults with Down syndrome
Loyse Hippolyte1, Koviljka Barisnikov, Martial Van der Linden
1University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Koviljka.Barisnikov@pse.unige.ch
American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR
|June 21, 2008
Summary
Adults with Down syndrome (DS) show deficits in processing neutral and surprised facial expressions. Their emotional processing is linked to vocabulary and inhibition, not nonverbal reasoning.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Down syndrome (DS) is associated with cognitive challenges, including social cognition.
- Facial expression recognition is crucial for social interaction.
- Previous research indicates varied social cognition abilities in DS.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate face processing and facial expression recognition in adults with Down syndrome (DS).
- To compare DS performance with a matched control group.
- To explore relationships between emotional processing, cognitive abilities, and DS.
Main Methods:
- 17 adults with Down syndrome (DS) and a child control group (matched for receptive vocabulary) completed face processing and facial expression recognition tasks.
- Performance on neutral faces, complete faces, and specific emotional expressions was assessed.
- Correlations with measures of receptive vocabulary, inhibition, and nonverbal reasoning were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Adults with DS performed significantly worse on tasks with faces lacking emotional content compared to controls.
- DS participants showed good performance on tasks with complete faces.
- Difficulties were noted in recognizing neutral and surprised facial expressions in the DS group.
- Error analysis indicated a positive bias in face perception among individuals with DS.
- Significant correlations were found between emotional processing, receptive vocabulary, and inhibition in the DS group.
Conclusions:
- Adults with Down syndrome exhibit specific challenges in recognizing certain facial expressions, particularly neutral and surprised.
- Their face processing is influenced by emotional content and overall facial completeness.
- Emotional processing in DS is interconnected with language and executive functions like inhibition.
- Nonverbal reasoning ability does not appear to be a significant factor in these face processing tasks for individuals with DS.
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