Comparative study of emotional facial expression recognition among Prader-Willi syndrome subtypes

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a congenital disease caused by a rare and generally non-inherited genetic disorder. The inability to recognise facial expressions of emotion is an apparent social cognition deficit in people diagnosed with PWS. The main objective of the present study is to compare the ability to recognise emotional facial expression, in both non-contextualised and contextualised scenarios, among the main subtypes of PWS and a control group.

The sample consisted of 46 children divided into three groups: deletion (n = 10), maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) (n = 13) and control (n = 23). The protocol included the Facially Expressed Emotion Labeling and the Deusto-e-Motion 1.0.

The control group recognised facial emotions more accurately and quickly in both non-contextualised and contextualised scenarios than children with PWS, regardless of genetic subtype. Despite no differences being detected between PWS subtypes when non-contextualised scenarios were analysed, in contextualised situations, a longer reaction time was observed in children with the mUPD subtype.

This is the first study to assess the ability to recognise emotional facial expressions in contextualised situations among PWS subtypes and a control group. The findings suggest that some of the social cognitive deficits evidenced in children with mUPD PWS may be similar to those in autism spectrum disorder.