Benton Facial Recognition Test Research Articles

Perceptual heterogeneity in developmental prosopagnosia is continuous, not categorical

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is associated with considerable perceptual heterogeneity, though the nature of this heterogeneity and whether there are discrete subgroups versus continuous deficits remains unclear. Bennetts et al. (2022) recently found that holistic versus featural processing deficits distinguished discrete DP subgroups, but their sample was relatively small (N = 37), and subgroups were defined using a single task. To characterize perceptual heterogeneity in DPs more comprehensively, we administered a broad face perception battery to a large sample of 109 DPs and 134 controls, including validated measures of face matching (Cambridge Face Perception Test – CFPT, Computerized Benton Facial Recognition Test, Same/Different Face Matching Task), holistic processing (Part-Whole Task), and feature processing (Georges Task and Part-Whole part trials). When examining face matching measures, DPs exhibited a similar distribution of performance as controls, though shifted towards impairment by an average of 1.4 SD. We next applied Bennetts (2022) hierarchical clustering approach and k-means clustering to the CFPT upright, inverted, and inversion index measures, similarly finding one group of DPs with poorer inverted face performance and another with a decreased face inversion effect (holistic processing). However, these subgroup differences failed to generalize to other measures of feature and holistic processing beyond the CFPT. We finally ran hierarchical and k-means cluster analyses on our larger battery of face matching, feature, and holistic processing measures. Results clearly showed subgroups with generally better versus worse performance across all measures, with the distinction between groups being somewhat arbitrary. Together, these findings support a continuous account of DP perceptual heterogeneity, with performance differing primarily across all aspects of face perception.

Examining the association between exposome score for schizophrenia and cognition in schizophrenia, siblings, and healthy controls: Results from the EUGEI study

BackgroundPeople with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) frequently present cognitive impairments. Here, we investigated whether the exposome score for schizophrenia (ES-SCZ) - a cumulative environmental exposure score - was associated with impairments of neurocognition, social cognition, and perception in patients with SSD, their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls. MethodsThis cross-sectional sample consisted of 1200 patients, 1371 siblings, and 1564 healthy controls. Neurocognition, social cognition, and perception were assesed using a short version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (WAIS-III), the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR), and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFR), respectively. Regression models were used to analyze the association between ES-SCZ and cognitive domains in each group. ResultsThere were no statistically significant associations between ES-SCZ and cognitive domains in SSD. ES-SCZ was negatively associated with T-score of cognition in siblings (B=-0.40, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.03) and healthy controls (B=-0.63, 95% CI -1.06 to -0.21). Additionally, ES-SCZ was positively associated with DFAR-total in siblings (B=0.83, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.40). Sensitivity analyses excluding cannabis use history from ES-SCZ largely confirmed the main findings. ConclusionsLongitudinal cohorts may elucidate how environmental exposures influence the onset and course of cognitive impairments in trans-syndromic psychosis spectrum.

Cognitive Profiles of French Individuals with Williams Syndrome and Down Syndrome: What’s Up? What’s Next?

The aim of our study was to characterize the face recognition skills, theory of mind skills, and language skills of a single group of French participants with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to a group of participants with Down syndrome (DS). Twelve French-speaking participants with WS and 12 French-speaking participants with DS took part in this study. The two groups were matched for nonverbal and verbal levels. We used the Benton Facial Recognition test to study the groups’ ability to recognize faces, the Theory of Mind Test Revised, and the morphosyntactic production and morphosyntactic comprehension subtests from the French test battery “Instruments pour le Screening et l’Approfondissement de l’examen des DYsfonctionnements du Langage chez l’Enfant (ISADYLE)”. The results of the participants with WS were systematically better than those of the participants with DS. Nevertheless, although they outperformed the participants with DS, the participants with WS were far from performing at ceiling level. Most importantly, we found no significant correlations between performances on the various standardized tests for either group of participants. The evaluation of cognitive skills in a single group of French participants with WS confirmed that they present a complex profile. Because these competences are strongly influenced by social and cultural aspects, it is therefore essential to develop studies for specific languages, including when one is examining a rare developmental disability.

The ability of patients with Parkinson's disease to recognize masked faces during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to evaluate the difficulties of PwP in recognizing masked faces during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 64 PwP, 58 age-matched older healthy controls (OHCs), and 61 younger healthy controls (YHCs) were included in the study. The Benton Face Recognition Test - short form (BFRT-sf) and the 13-item questionnaire on face recognition difficulties due to masks during the pandemic developed by the authors were applied to all three study groups. Both the PwP and OHC groups scored worse in BFRT-sf when compared with the YHC group (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). The number of those who had difficulty in recognizing people seen every day and the number of those who asked people to remove their masks because they did not recognize them were higher in the PWP group (p=0.026 and p=0.002, respectively). The number of individuals who looked at the posture and gait of people when they did not recognize their masked faces and those who stated that this difficulty affected their daily lives were higher in the OHC group (p=0.002 and p=0.009, respectively). The number of participants whose difficulty in recognizing masked faces decreased over time was higher in the YHC group (p=0.003). The PwP group demonstrated similar performance to their peers but differed from the YHC group in recognizing masked faces. Knowing difficulties experienced by elderly people in recognizing people who are masked can increase awareness on this issue and enhance their social interaction in pandemic conditions through measures to be taken.

Recognition of Basic Emotions with and without the Use of Emotional Vocabulary by Adolescents with Down Syndrome.

Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) often experience behavioral and emotional issues that complicate their socialization process and may lead to psychopathological disorders. These problems may be related to deficits affecting emotional knowledge, particularly emotional vocabulary. Because emotional vocabulary makes it easier for typically developing children to identify emotions, a deficit affecting it in DS could be problematic. Methods: Twenty-eight adolescents with DS matched with typically developing (TD) children for their score on the Benton Facial Recognition Test were asked to recognize six emotional expressions presented in the form of filmed sequences, based on (1) nonverbal cues such as prosody, and (2) an emotional label. Results: The adolescents with DS recognized the six basic emotional expressions at a level comparable to that of the TD children in both conditions (with and without emotional vocabulary), but the facilitating effect of vocabulary was lower in that group. Conclusions: This study does not show a deficit affecting emotion recognition in DS, but it emphasizes the importance of early acquisition of emotional knowledge in this syndrome. Regular and varied use of internal state words should be encouraged in familial interactions, and education should include specifically adapted social and emotional learning programs.

Not so fast! Response times in the computerized Benton Face Recognition Test may not reflect face recognition ability

ABSTRACT Response times (RTs) are commonly used to assess cognitive abilities, though it is unclear whether face processing RTs predict recognition ability beyond accuracy. In the current study, we examined accuracy and RT on a widely used face matching assessment modified to collect meaningful RT data, the computerized Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT-c), and measured whether RTs predicted face recognition ability and developmental prosopagnosia (DP) vs. control group membership. 62 controls and 36 DPs performed the BFRT-c as well as validated measures of face recognition ability: the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and a Famous Faces Memory Test (FFMT). In controls, BFRT-c accuracy robustly predicted CFMT (r = .49, p < .001), FFMT (r = .43, p < .001), and a CFMT-FFMT composite (r = .54, p < .001), whereas BFRT-c RT was not significantly associated with these measures (all r's .21). We also found that BFRT-c accuracy significantly differed between DPs and controls, but RT failed to differentiate the groups.

Examination of the Relationship Between the Theory of Mind, Neurocognitive Functions and Thought-Language Features in the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Affective Disorder I Groups.

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship of ToM with face-emotion recognition, executive functions and thought disorders in the schizophrenia (SC) and bipolar affective disorder I (BAD I) groups. 40 SC, 40 BAD I and 40 healthy control groups were included, matched for age, gender, and educational status. Dokuz Eylül Theory of Mind Scale (DEToMS)) and Reading Mind in Eyes (RMET) test, Benton face recognition test (BFRT), Ekman emotion recognition battery, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop test, Thought and Language Index (TLI) were used. Positive and Negative Symptoms Rating Scale (PANNS) in the SZ group, Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) in the BAD I group were used. The number of perseverative responses in WSCT was higher in the SC group than the BAD I group. Recognition of the fearful expression scores, DEToMS total and subscale scores except irony were higher and scores of TLI were lower in healthy controls more than patients group. Recognition of the fearful expression scores, DEToMS total and subscale scores except irony were higher and scores of TLI were lower in BAD I group more than SC group. There was no difference between SC and BAD I groups between BFRT, emotion recognition except fearful expression and RMET scores. The best predictors of DEToMS were executive functions and TLI total score in the SC group and was emotion recognition in the BAD I group. The best predictors of the RMET score were executive functions and emotion recognition for both groups. Our findings suggest that social cognition remains a biomarker in patients with SZ and BAD I.

An update of the Benton Facial Recognition Test.

The Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) is a paper-and-pen task that is traditionally used to assess face perception skills in neurological, clinical and psychiatric conditions. Despite criticisms of its stimuli, the task enjoys a simple procedure and is rapid to administer. Further, it has recently been computerised (BFRT-c), allowing reliable measurement of completion times and the need for online testing. Here, in response to calls for repeat screening for the accurate detection of face processing deficits, we present the BFRT-Revised (BFRT-r): a new version of the BFRT-c that maintains the task's basic paradigm, but employs new, higher-quality stimuli that reflect recent theoretical advances in the field. An initial validation study with typical participants indicated that the BFRT-r has good internal reliability and content validity. A second investigation indicated that while younger and older participants had comparable accuracy, completion times were longer in the latter, highlighting the need for age-matched norms. Administration of the BFRT-r and BFRT-c to 32 individuals with developmental prosopagnosia resulted in improved sensitivity in diagnostic screening for the BFRT-r compared to the BFRT-c. These findings are discussed in relation to current diagnostic screening protocols for face perception deficits. The BFRT-r is stored in an open repository and is freely available to other researchers.

Comparing the sensitivity of face matching assessments to detect face perception impairments

Numerous neurological, developmental, and psychiatric conditions demonstrate impaired face recognition, which can be socially debilitating. These impairments can be caused by either deficient face perception or face memory mechanisms. Though there are well-validated, sensitive measures of face memory impairments, it currently remains unclear which assessments best measure face perception impairments. A sensitive, validated face perception measure could help with diagnosing causes of face recognition deficits and be useful in characterizing individual differences in unimpaired populations. Here, we compared the computerized Benton Face Recognition Test (BFRT-c) and Cambridge Face Perception Test (CFPT) in their ability to differentiate developmental prosopagnosics (DPs, N = 30) and age-matched controls (N = 30). Participants completed the BFRT-c, CFPT, and two additional face perception assessments: the University of Southern California Face Perception Test (USCFPT) and a novel same/different face matching test (SDFMT). Participants were also evaluated on objective and subjective face recognition tasks including the Cambridge Face Memory Test, famous faces test, and Prosopagnosia Index-20. We performed a logistic regression with the perception tests predicting DP vs. control group membership and used multiple linear regressions to predict continuous objective and subjective face recognition memory. Our results show that the BFRT-c performed as well as, if not better than, the CFPT, and that both tests clearly outperformed the USCFPT and SDFMT. Further, exploratory analyses revealed that face lighting-change conditions better predicted DP group membership and face recognition abilities than viewpoint-change conditions. Together, these results support the combined use of the BFRT-c and CFPT to best assess face perception impairments.

Face perception predicts affective theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder but not schizophrenia or typical development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SCZ) have overlapping symptomatology related to difficulties with social cognition. Yet, few studies have directly compared social cognition in ASD, SCZ, and typical development (TD). The current study examined individual differences in face recognition and its relation to affective theory of mind (ToM) in each diagnostic group. Adults with ASD (n = 31), SCZ (n = 43), and TD (n = 47) between the ages of 18 and 48 years-old with full scale IQ above 80 participated in this study. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measured affective ToM, and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) measured face perception. Adults with ASD and SCZ did not differ in their affective ToM abilities, and both groups showed affective ToM difficulties compared with TD. However, better face recognition ability uniquely predicted better affective ToM ability in ASD. Results suggest that affective ToM difficulties may relate to face processing in ASD but not SCZ. By clarifying the complex nature of individual differences in affective ToM and face recognition difficulties in these disorders, the present study suggests there may be divergent mechanisms underlying pathways to social dysfunction in ASD compared with SCZ. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Metacognition and Frontal Lobe Functioning.

Objective:The frontal lobes have been reported to play in important role in metacognition. The present study evaluated metacognition in a group of neurological patients.Method:Twenty-one neurological (traumatic brain injury and cerebral vascular accident) patients were administered a metacognitive test and neuropsychological tests including a well-known index of frontal lobe functioning, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). After each trial, the participants were asked to evaluate their own performance on a face recognition test by rating their confidence about their accuracy on a scale of 1 (not very confident) to 3 (very confident).Results:A point biserial correlation between accuracy on each trial and confidence was calculated for each participant as a measure of metacognition, Mcog. Mcog was significantly associated with the index of executive/frontal lobe functioning, WCST number of categories. Mcog was not associated with Full Scale IQ, General Memory Quotient, or Benton Facial Recognition Test score (short form, which did not include the experimental trials).Conclusions:These data add support to the idea that the frontal lobes have a special role in metacognition.

Face-Processing Performance is an Independent Predictor of Social Affect as Measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Across Large-Scale Datasets.

Face-processing deficits, while not required for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), have been associated with impaired social skills-a core feature of ASD; however, the strength and prevalence of this relationship remains unclear. Across 445 participants from the NIMH Data Archive, we examined the relationship between Benton Face Recognition Test (BFRT) performance and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Social Affect (ADOS-SA) scores. Lower BFRT scores (worse face-processing performance) were associated with higher ADOS-SA scores (higher ASD severity)-a relationship that held after controlling for other factors associated with face processing, i.e., age, sex, and IQ. These findings underscore the utility of face discrimination, not just recognition of facial emotion, as a key covariate for the severity of symptoms that characterize ASD.

Clinical use of the Insight Inventory in cerebral visual impairment and the effectiveness of tailored habilitational strategies.

To investigate the utility of the Insight Inventory (a structured clinical inventory completed by caregivers) for assessment of children with cerebral visual impairment; and to investigate effectiveness of tailored habilitational strategies derived from the responses to the Insight Inventory. Fifty-one eligible children (26 males, 25 females; mean age 9y 5mo, SD 3y, range 5-16y) were recruited from Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. They underwent baseline assessment including neuro-ophthalmological and neuropsychological evaluations, and parent- and child-reported ratings on a questionnaire-based measure of quality of life. Parents also completed the Insight Inventory. On the basis of responses to the Inventory, families received individualized habilitational strategies. Follow-up assessments 6 months later included repeating the Insight Inventory and quality of life questionnaires. Correlations were found between the Insight Inventory and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition, the Beery-Buktenica Test of Visual-Motor Integration, and the Benton Facial Recognition Test, suggesting that the Insight Inventory is an effective tool to estimate visual-perceptual difficulties. At 6 months follow-up, caregiver reports indicated significant improvements in the quality of life of children below the age of 12 years. The Insight Inventory is a simple questionnaire which covers practical aspects of cognitive visual function in everyday life. It provides in-depth information about the aspects that children struggle with. It can also guide programmes of individualized habilitation strategies, which may enhance the quality of life of younger children. Questionnaire scores demonstrate biologically plausible correlations with formal neuropsychological tests of visual function. After administration of matched practical habilitational strategies, younger children showed improvement in quality of life and functional vision scores.

Typical visual unfamiliar face individuation in left and right mesial temporal epilepsy

Patients with chronic mesial temporal lobe epilepsy have difficulties at identifying familiar faces as well as at explicit old/new face recognition tasks. However, the extent to which these difficulties can be attributed to visual individuation of faces, independently of general explicit learning and semantic memory processes, is unknown. We tested 42 mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients divided into two groups according to the side of epilepsy (left and right) and 42 matched controls on an extensive series of individuation tasks of unfamiliar faces and control visual stimuli, as well as on face detection, famous face recognition and naming, and face and non-face learning. Overall, both patient groups had difficulties at identifying and naming famous faces, and at explicitly learning face and non-face images. However, there was no group difference in accuracy between patients and controls at the two most widely used neuropsychological tests assessing visual individuation of unfamiliar faces (Benton Facial Recognition Test and Cambridge Face Memory Test). While patients with right mesial temporal lobe epilepsy were slowed down at all tasks, this effect was not specific to faces or even high-level stimuli. Importantly, both groups showed the same profile of response as typical participants across various stimulus manipulations, showing no evidence of qualitative processing impairments. Overall, these results point to largely preserved visual face individuation processes in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, with semantic and episodic memory difficulties being consistent with the localization of the neural structures involved in their epilepsy (anterior temporal cortex and hippocampus). These observations have implications for the prediction of neuropsychological outcomes in the case of surgery and support the validity of intracranial electroencephalographic recordings performed in this population to understand neural mechanisms of human face individuation, notably through intracranial electrophysiological recordings and stimulations.

The Relationship Between the Benton Face Recognition Test and Electrophysiological Unfamiliar Face Individuation Response as Revealed by Fast Periodic Stimulation.

A recent approach to implicitly study face recognition skills has been the fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) coupled with electroencephalography (EEG). Its relationship with explicit behavioral measures of face individuation remains largely undocumented. We evaluated the relationship of the FPVS–EEG measure of individuation and performance at a computer version of the Benton Face Recognition Test. High-density EEG was recorded in 32 participants presented with an unfamiliar face at a rate of 6 Hz (F) for 60 s. Every five faces, new identities were inserted. The resulting 1.2 Hz (F/5) EEG response and its harmonics objectively indexed rapid individuation of unfamiliar faces. The robust individuation response, observed over occipitotemporal sites, was significantly correlated with speed, but not accuracy rate of the computer version of the Benton Face Recognition Test. This effect was driven by a few individuals who were particularly slow at the behavioral test and also showed the lowest face individuation response. These results highlight the importance of considering the time taken to recognize a face, as a complementary to accuracy rate variable, providing valuable information about one’s recognition skills. Overall, these observations strengthen the diagnostic value of FPVS–EEG as an objective and rapid flag for specific difficulties at individual face recognition in the human population.

Bayesian regression-based developmental norms for the Benton Facial Recognition Test in males and females.

Face identity recognition is important for social interaction and is impaired in a range of clinical disorders, including several neurodevelopmental disorders. The Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT; Benton & Van Allen, 1968), a widely used assessment of identity recognition, is the only standardized test of face identity perception, as opposed to face memory, that has been normed on children and adolescents. However, the existing norms for the BFRT are suboptimal, with several ages not represented and no established time limit (which can lead to inflated scores by allowing individuals with prosopagnosia to use feature matching). Here we address these issues with a large normative dataset of children and adolescents (ages 5-17, N = 398) and adults (ages 18-55; N = 120) who completed a time-limited version of the BFRT. Using Bayesian regression, we demonstrate that face identity perception increases asymptotically from childhood through adulthood, and provide continuous norms based on age and sex that can be used to calculate standard scores. We show that our time limit of 16 seconds per item yields scores comparable to the existing norms without time limits from the non-prosopagnostic samples. We also find that females (N = 156) score significantly higher than males (N = 362), supporting the existence of a female superiority effect for face identification. Overall, these results provide more robust norms for the BFRT and promote future research on face identity perception in developmental populations.

The Relationship between the Visual-Spatial Perceptions and Face Recognition Skills in Parents of the Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between the autism symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the visual-spatial perceptions and face recognition skills of the parents of these children. In the study, the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) diagnosed with intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) and the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) without any psychiatric disorder, totally 180 people, were assessed in order to compare the data of the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) diagnosed with ASD. Autism behavior checklist was used to assess the symptoms of the children diagnosed with ASD. Benton's Judgment of Line Orientation Test (BJLO), Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT), and symptom checklist were used to assess the parents in three groups. It was found that there was no correlation between the autism symptoms of the children diagnosed with ASD and the visual-spatial perceptions and face recognition skills of their parents. The spatial perception skills of the fathers in the ASD group were higher compared to the mothers in this group (P

Typical unfamiliar face discrimination ability in anterior temporal lobe epilepsy

Compared to patients with prosopagnosia, other animal species, infants or children, neurotypical human adults are experts at individuating pictures of unfamiliar faces, but the neural basis of this function remains largely unknown. Since an increasing number of studies rely on intracranial recordings in anterior temporal epileptic patients (aTLE) to investigate the neural mechanisms of face recognition, it is important to assess aTLE patients’ ability to discriminate and match unfamiliar individual faces. Here, we tested 42 patients with left (n=17) or right (n=25) aTLE, and 42 healthy matched controls. Seven computerized neuropsychological tests were administered: the Benton Face Recognition Test (BFRT), the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), delayed matching of upright pictures of faces and objects, the Mooney Face Test, famous face recognition and naming, unfamiliar face and object learning. Relative to controls, we found that (1) both left and right aTLE patients were impaired (−10.5% and −8.2% in accuracy, respectively) in learning unfamiliar faces, but without any specificity (i.e. impairment also for nonface objects); (2) on average, right aTLE patients had significantly slower response times at all tasks, but this included the WAIS’ Code subtest assessing processing speed, showing that this effect is not specific to visual tasks and (3) importantly, there was no difference between aTLE patients and matched controls on all the tasks assessing individual face discrimination (mean BFRT scores at 42.3/54 and 42.6/54 and CFMT scores at 47.2/72 and 47.1/72 for left and right aTLE respectively, significant inversion effect for matching individual faces but not cars). Overall, our study shows that left and right aTLE patients do not differ quantitatively and qualitatively at unfamiliar face discrimination tasks relative to healthy controls.

Panayiotopoulos syndrome and Gastaut syndrome are distinct entities in terms of neuropsychological findings

BackgroundAlthough the courses of self-limited focal epilepsies of childhood are considered as benign, a handful of studies suggested that these children may suffer from cognitive problems. Implementing tailor-made educational strategies would aid these children to reach their full potentials. Therefore, it is crucial to understand and differentiate the complete neuropsychological and behavioral profiles of these rather common syndromes. We aimed to examine the distinct cognitive and behavioral profiles of the Panayiotopoulos syndrome (PS) and the Gastaut syndrome (GS), comparatively. MethodTwenty patients with PS, 20 patients with GS, and 20 healthy controls have been recruited. The testing protocol included Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, Conner's Continuous Performance Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Stroop Color and Word Test, Color Trails Test, Tower of London Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version, Rey Complex Figure Test, Benton Face Recognition Test, Benton Judgment of Line Orientation, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Reading and Writing Test, Child Behavior Checklist, Conner's Parent Rating Scale-48, and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Demographical, clinical, electrophysiological data, and imaging findings have also been evaluated. ResultsWith regard to intelligence, the patients with PS scored less in all scales compared to the healthy controls. However, only the performance IQ (intelligence quotient) scores differed significantly between the patient groups, with the patients with PS scoring lower than the patients with GS. Verbal memory problems were eminent in both of the patient groups; whereas, visual memory was impaired only in the group with PS. Psychomotor speed was affected in both groups. Reading problems were prominent only in the patients with PS. Writing and arithmetic skills were defective in both patient groups. There were no noteworthy behavioral problems in comparison to healthy subjects. ConclusionUsing neuropsychological profiles, this study demonstrated that the GS and the PS are two distinct entities. Cognitive dysfunction is a more prominent and widespread feature of the patients with PS; whereas, the patients with GS suffer only from milder and isolated cognitive problems.

Arterial spin labeling provides a reliable neurobiological marker of autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundResearch on neurobiological markers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been elusive. However, radionuclide studies of cerebral blood flow (CBF) have shown decreased blood flow (hypoperfusion) in the temporal lobes of individuals with ASD across ages and intelligence. This observation fits with current neuroscientific models that implicate temporal regions in social perception and social cognition. Arterial spin labeled perfusion MRI allows noninvasive quantification of regional CBF as part of a multimodal MRI protocol. This method is almost entirely absent from ASD research to date. Our a priori hypothesis was that children with ASD would present with hypoperfusion in the temporal lobes—most notably the fusiform gyrus (given its prominent role in ASD social perception deficits). We also sought to examine the reproducibility of CBF measures, and their relationship to individual differences in facial recognition and ASD symptoms.MethodsA total of 58 males (33 with ASD) between the ages of 12 and 17 years participated in the study. All children completed two arterial spin labeling and structural (T1) scans using a 3 T Siemens Verio scanner approximately 8 weeks apart, as well as behavioral testing at time 1 that included diagnostic measures and the Benton Facial Recognition Test. CBF was the key dependent variable, as was facial recognition performance, and ASD symptoms. The two scans were used for reliability analyses.ResultsThe ASD group showed hypoperfusion in the bilateral fusiform gyrus and in right inferior temporal gyrus. Intra-class correlations showed moderate to good reliability across time within both groups, and no diagnostic group × time interactions. CBF in the left fusiform gyrus was significantly positively correlated with facial recognition. No significant correlations were observed with core ASD symptoms.ConclusionsArterial spin labeling revealed hypoperfusion in children with ASD in regions critical to social perception and cognition. The left fusiform gyrus plays an important role in facial recognition, and greater CBF in this region was correlated with more normative facial recognition performance in children with ASD. This study takes an important first step in establishing CBF of the temporal lobes as a reliable marker of ASD.