Is It Just Face Blindness? Developmental Comorbidity in Individuals With Self-Reported Developmental Prosopagnosia

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Objective: Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) - or ‘face blindness’- is a severe deficit in face recognition that occurs in people with no known brain injury. While we know that other neurodevelopmental disorders commonly co-occur, there are to date no studies of the possible co-occurrence of DP or face recognition impairment with other neurodevelopmental disorders (excluding Autism Spectrum Disorder). The present work aimed to explore if individuals with self-reported DP report indications of other neurodevelopmental disorders, deficits, or conditions, collectively referred to as developmental comorbidity. Methods: 115 individuals with self-reported DP participated in this cross-sectional survey conducted online. Prosopagnosia was measured with the 20-item prosopagnosia index (Shah, Gaule, Sowden, Bird & Cook, 2015). Indications of difficulties with navigation, math, reading or spelling were measured with a tailored questionnaire, which also included open-ended questions about cognitive abilities and impairments. In addition to quantitative analysis of the questionnaire items, a qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyse the participants’ own descriptions of their difficulties and abilities. Results: The quantitative analysis revealed that 57 % of the participants reported at least one developmental comorbidity of interest, and these included aphantasia, memory problems, synaesthesia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and object agnosia. An exploratory factor analysis suggested four factors, ‘Developmental Prosopagnosia Symptoms’, ‘Navigation and Orientation’, ‘History of Reading/Spelling Difficulty’ and ‘History of Difficulties with Math’. The presence of developmental comorbidity was not associated with subjectively more severe DP. 25 % of the sample rated their navigation ability on level with clinically relevant complaints. The participants’ elaborations on their difficulties and abilities provided additional insights to the potential developmental comorbidity in DP. Conclusions: More than half the sample of DPs reported some form of developmental comorbidity, suggesting that there might be more to explore in the link between DP and a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders and deficits.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2021
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event14th Nordic Meeting in Neuropsychology: From cradle to cognitive reserve - Scandic Falconer, Frederiksberg, Denmark
Duration: 25 Aug 202127 Aug 2021

Conference

Conference14th Nordic Meeting in Neuropsychology
LocationScandic Falconer
CountryDenmark
CityFrederiksberg
Period25/08/202127/08/2021

ID: 279197518