Face scanning and spontaneous emotion preference in Cornelia de Lange syndrome and Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome.

Hayley Crawford,Giles M Anderson,Joanna Moss,Chris Oliver,Joseph P Mccleery

doi:10.1186/s11689-015-9119-4

Abstract

BackgroundExisting literature suggests differences in face scanning in individuals with different socio-behavioural characteristics. Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) and Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RTS) are two genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorders with unique profiles of social behaviour.MethodsHere, we examine eye gaze to the eye and mouth regions of neutrally expressive faces, as well as the spontaneous visual preference for happy and disgusted facial expressions compared to neutral faces, in individuals with CdLS versus RTS.ResultsResults indicate that the amount of time spent looking at the eye and mouth regions of faces was similar in 15 individuals with CdLS and 17 individuals with RTS. Both participant groups also showed a similar pattern of spontaneous visual preference for emotions.ConclusionsThese results provide insight into two rare, genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorders that have been reported to exhibit contrasting socio-behavioural characteristics and suggest that differences in social behaviour may not be sufficient to predict attention to the eye region of faces. These results also suggest that differences in the social behaviours of these two groups may be cognitively mediated rather than subcortically mediated.

Highlights

Existing literature suggests differences in face scanning in individuals with different socio-behavioural characteristics
To ensure that participants did not demonstrate a looking bias to the left or right eye in faces, t tests were conducted for each group to compare looking time to the left and right eyes relative to the amount of time spent looking at the face which revealed no significant differences (CdLS: t(14) = 0.557, p = 0.586; Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RTS): t(16) = −1.759, p = 0.098)
Spontaneous emotion preference was observed to be similar in those with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) and RTS in the current study and mirror that previously reported in typically developing (TD) individuals [41]

Summary

Introduction

Existing literature suggests differences in face scanning in individuals with different socio-behavioural characteristics. Exploring the face to spontaneously distinguish emotional expressions is part of successful social interaction. Different face scanning has been reported in the literature for individuals who exhibit impairments in social interaction [3,4,5]. The majority of these studies have focussed primarily on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), more recent studies have investigated visual exploration of social stimuli in Williams syndrome (WS). These two neurodevelopmental disorders are each associated with impairments and atypicalities in social interactions, but the presentation of these impairments is dramatically different. Individuals with ASD have often been reported to exhibit social withdrawal and reduced eye contact, whereas individuals with WS have been reported to exhibit hyper-sociability and heightened eye gaze [3,4,5]

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