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Orientation and Affective Expression Effects on Face Recognition in Williams Syndrome and Autism

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Abstract

We sought to clarify the nature of the face processing strength commonly observed in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) by comparing the face recognition ability of persons with WS to that of persons with autism and to healthy controls under three conditions: Upright faces with neutral expressions, upright faces with varying affective expressions, and inverted faces with neutral expressions. No differences were observed under the upright/neutral expression condition. However, the WS group was more accurate than the autism group when discriminating upright faces with varying affective expressions, whereas the opposite pattern emerged when discriminating inverted faces. We interpret these differences as a reflection of the contrasting social features of the two syndromes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by NIH grant PO1HD33113 Program Project awarded to U. Bellugi and by a seed money grant from the Alliant International University awarded to Alan J. Lincoln, Ph.D. We would like to acknowledge Julie R. Korenberg, MD, Ph.D., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California at Los Angeles for confirming the presence of the elastin deletion in our WS participants.

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  1. Fredric E. Rose

    Present address: Polomar Community College, San Diego, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Fredric E. Rose, Alan J. Lincoln, Zona Lai, Michaela Ene, Yvonne M. Searcy & Ursula Bellugi

  2. Alliant International University, 6160 Cornerstone Ct. East, San Diego, CA, USA

    Alan J. Lincoln & Michaela Ene

  3. Center for Autism Research, Evaluation and Service, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA

    Alan J. Lincoln & Michaela Ene

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  1. Fredric E. Rose
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  2. Alan J. Lincoln
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  3. Zona Lai
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Correspondence to Alan J. Lincoln.

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Fred E. Rose is presently on faculty of polomar community college and Zona Lai is presently working as a neuropsychologist in private practice in La Jolla, CA, USA

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Rose, F.E., Lincoln, A.J., Lai, Z. et al. Orientation and Affective Expression Effects on Face Recognition in Williams Syndrome and Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 513–522 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0200-4

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