Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia tend to focus more evenly on facial features.

Abstract

The facial processing characteristics of developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have long been a focus of research. In this study, we used behavioral and eye movement techniques to explore the facial fixation characteristics of DP by comparing the fixation patterns during facial recognition between people with DP and control individuals. A mixed 2 (group: control, DP) × 3 (area of interest [AOI]: eyes, nose, mouth) experimental design was adopted, dividing faces into 3 AOIs: eyes, nose, and mouth. The behavioral results showed that facial recognition scores were lower in the DP group than in the control group. The eye movement results showed that the duration and number of eye and nose fixations were greater than those on the mouth in the control group; however, the duration and number of fixations on the eyes, nose, and mouth did not differ in the DP group. These results confirmed that the control group focused more on the eyes and nose when recognizing faces, whereas the DP group adopted a more even browsing pattern to focus on various facial features. Overall, the differences between the fixation patterns of the control group and the DP group were explored with the help of eye-tracking technology, which revealed that the fixation patterns of the DP group were more evenly spread across multiple facial features than those of the control group were, providing a new perspective for researchers to further explore the causes of DP and formulate effective intervention programs.