Riby Deborah M, Doherty-Sneddon Gwyneth, Bruce Vicki
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.
Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2008 Jan;13(1):47-58. doi: 10.1080/13546800701779206.
Familiar and unfamiliar face perception is typically dissociated by the relative use of internal and external face features. The Williams syndrome (WS) social phenotype emphasises hypersociability, with an interest in interacting with people irrespective of familiarity. The aim is to explore whether unfamiliar face processing is characterised by the typical dissociation between internal and external features in WS, or whether the social stimulus drive towards strangers is linked to atypicalities of unfamiliar face processing.
The procedure replicates that previously used with typically developing children. Participants with WS (aged 10-18 years) and typically developing comparison participants determine whether two face parts are from the same person or different people, using the whole face, internal, and external features.
Only participants with WS, and not typically developing participants, show greater accuracy matching unfamiliar faces from internal than external features.
Evidence of atypical unfamiliar face processing in WS may inform models of typical face perception, revealing the origins of the relative advantage for internal features typically associated with familiar but not unfamiliar faces. The results also have implications for understanding more clearly the social phenotype associated with WS.
熟悉和不熟悉面孔的感知通常通过内部和外部面部特征的相对使用来区分。威廉姆斯综合征（WS）的社会表型强调过度社交，即无论是否熟悉，都对与人互动感兴趣。目的是探讨WS中不熟悉面孔加工是否具有内部和外部特征之间典型的区分特征，或者对陌生人的社会刺激驱动是否与不熟悉面孔加工的异常有关。
该程序重复了之前用于正常发育儿童的程序。患有WS（年龄10 - 18岁）的参与者和正常发育的对照参与者使用整个面部、内部和外部特征来判断两个面部部分是来自同一个人还是不同的人。
只有患有WS的参与者，而不是正常发育的参与者，在匹配不熟悉面孔时，根据内部特征比外部特征表现出更高的准确性。
WS中不熟悉面孔加工异常的证据可能为典型面孔感知模型提供信息，揭示通常与熟悉而非不熟悉面孔相关的内部特征相对优势的起源。这些结果对于更清楚地理解与WS相关的社会表型也具有启示意义。
