Social Cognition in Down Syndrome: Face Tuning in Face-Like Non-Face Images

Abstract

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) are widely believed to possess considerable socialization strengths. However, the findings on social cognition capabilities are controversial. In the present study, we investigated whether individuals with DS exhibit shortage in face tuning, one of the indispensable components of social cognition. For this purpose, we implemented a recently developed Face-n-Food paradigm with food-plate images composed of food ingredients such as fruits and vegetables. The key benefit of such face-like non-face images is that single elements do not facilitate face processing. In a spontaneous recognition task, 25 children with DS aged 9 to 18 years were presented with a set of Face-n-Food images bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style. The set of images was administered in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. In DS individuals, thresholds for recognition of the Face-n-Food images as a face were drastically higher as compared not only with typically developing controls, but also with individuals with autistic spectrum disorders and Williams-Beuren syndrome. This outcome represents a significant step toward better conceptualization of the visual social world in DS and neurodevelopmental disorders in general.

Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

“…Such preference in species with no parental care advocates the existence of a general mechanism to detect animacy in the natural environment [12]. Brain imaging such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI [13,14], magnetoencephalography, MEG [15], and electroencephalography, EEG [16][17][18][19] reveal that real faces and face-like nonface images activate similar occipito-temporal brain clusters with a hub in the fusiform face area, FFA (for review, see [20,21]). Face impression in such images usually arises spontaneously without any efforts.…”

“…Face impression in such images usually arises spontaneously without any efforts. The primary advantage of non-face images is that single components do not automatically prompt face processing [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. In other words, face tuning occurs without being explicitly cued by familiar elements such as eyes.…”

“…Females are reported to be more proficient on facial detection tasks and facial identity discrimination: they outperform males in accuracy when asked to determine whether spatially scrambled images of upright and inverted faces and trees represent faces [54]. By assessing a newly developed tool for face perception investigation, the Face-n-Food test comprising a set of images (composed of food elements such as fruits and vegetables) and bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style [20][21][22][23][24][25][26], female advantage in face tuning was found in a sample of university students [22]. The female brain is reported to be more responsive to non-face face-like images (such as clocks or backpacks) with a greater activation in such areas of the social brain as the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) and Brodmann area 22 [17].…”

Do you see the “face”? Individual differences in face pareidolia

“…In this framework, in Scenario 1, those who experience more face pareidolia may have lower discrimination sensitivity (d') between faces and non-face objects. This might be due to a leftward shift in face-tuning function in face detection, as shown in many studies (Pavlova, Galli et al, 2018;Pavlova et al, 2017;Pavlova et al, 2015). In Scenario 2, those who experience more face pareidolia may have a looser decision criterion for reporting face detection.…”

Faces do not attract more attention than non-social distractors in the Stroop task

“…The effect Arcimboldo cleverly applied to many of his paintings is also known as pareidolia, which describes the illusory perception of human faces in random patterns. This tendency is not only capitalized on in the arts, online communication, and product design, but also in research, where variations on the visual illusion are used to investigate mechanisms of face perception (Bubic, Susac, & Palmovic, 2014;Guido, Pichierri, Pino, & Nataraajan, 2019;Martinez-Conde et al, 2015;Pavlova et al, 2018;Robertson, Jenkins, & Burton, 2017;Wodehouse, Brisco, Broussard, & Duffy, 2018).…”