Abstract:
Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) is characterised by difficulties in motor control and coordination from early childhood. While problems processing facial identity are often associated with neurodevelopmental conditions, such issues have never been directly tested in adults with DCD. We tested this possibility through a range of tasks, and assessed the prevalence of developmental prosopagnosia (i.e., lifelong difficulties with faces), in a group comprising individuals who self-reported a diagnosis of, or suspected that they had, DCD. Strikingly, we found 53% of this probable DCD group met recently recommended criteria for a diagnosis of prosopagnosia, with 22% acquiring a diagnosis using traditional cognitive task-based methods. Moreover, their problems with faces were apparent on both unfamiliar and familiar face memory tests, as well as on a facial perception task (i.e., could they tell faces apart). Positive correlations were found between self-report measures assessing movement and coordination problems, and objective difficulties on experimental face identity processing tasks, suggesting widespread neurocognitive disruption in DCD. Importantly, issues in identity processing in our probable DCD group remained even after excluding participants with comorbid conditions traditionally associated with difficulties in face recognition, i.e., autism and dyslexia. We recommend that any diagnostic test for DCD should include an assessment for prosopagnosia. Given the high prevalence of prosopagnosia in our probable DCD group, and the positive correlations between DCD and prosopagnosia symptoms, there may be a stronger link between movement and facial identity abilities than previously thought.
摘要:
发育协调障碍(DCD)的特征是儿童早期的运动控制和协调困难。虽然处理面部身份的问题通常与神经发育状况有关,此类问题从未在患有DCD的成年人中直接进行过测试。我们通过一系列任务测试了这种可能性,并评估了发育性前失认症的患病率(即,面临终身困难),在一个由自我报告诊断的个体组成的群体中,或者怀疑他们有,DCD.引人注目的是,我们发现,这个可能的DCD组中有53%符合最近推荐的诊断标准,22%的人使用传统的基于认知任务的方法获得诊断。此外,在不熟悉和熟悉的面部记忆测试中,他们的面部问题都很明显,以及面部感知任务(即,他们能把脸分开吗)。自我报告评估运动和协调问题的措施之间存在正相关,和实验面部身份处理任务的客观困难,提示DCD中广泛的神经认知功能紊乱。重要的是,即使在排除了传统上与面部识别困难相关的合并症的参与者之后,我们可能的DCD组中的身份处理问题仍然存在,即,自闭症和阅读障碍。我们建议对DCD的任何诊断测试应包括对前失认症的评估。鉴于在我们可能的DCD组中,面部失认症的患病率很高,以及DCD与泛失认症状之间的正相关,运动和面部识别能力之间的联系可能比以前认为的更强。