Processing of facial expressions of emotions by adults with Down syndrome and moderate intellectual disability Fernando Carvajal *, Camino Ferna ´ ndez-Alcaraz, Marı ´a Rueda, Louise Sarrio ´n Universidad Auto ´noma de Madrid, Spain 1. Introduction Several authors have reported that people with intellectual disability present a deficit in the processing of facial expressions of emotions, which can be clearly observed when they are compared with participants from the general population matched in mental age (Adams & Markham, 1991; Harwood, Hall, & Shinkfield, 1999; McAlpine, Kendall, & Singh, 1991; Owen, Browning, & Jones, 2001; Rojahn, Rabold, & Schneider, 1995). These studies have also shown that although people with intellectual disability have slower reaction times and make many more errors they process facial information in a similar way to the general population (Singh et al., 2005). However, it must be noted that the term intellectual disability is used to refer to a wide range of clinical conditions with quite diverse etiologies, involving a wide range of neural deficits and mental abilities (Carlesimo, Marotta, & Vicari, 1997; Iarocci & Burack, 1998; Luckasson et al., 2002; Pulsifer, 1996). We, therefore, ask ourselves what exactly occurs in individuals with Down syndrome, a group with intellectual disability of known etiology. In this group, the study of non-verbal communication is important, given their serious language difficulties (Caselli, Monaco, Trasciani, & Vicari, 2008; Fowler, 1990; Ypsilanti & Grouios, 2008). It must also be taken into account that people with Down syndrome show considerable emotional skills both during the first months of life and at later stages (Carvajal & Iglesias, 2002; Kasari, Freeman, & Bass, 2003). It should also be noted that their style of processing visual information is global in nature (Bihrle, Bellugi, Delis, & Marks, 1989; Porter & Coltheart, 2006), and that this processing style has been related to the perception of faces and facial expressions (Tanaka & Farah, 1993). In fact, we know that in individuals with development considered to be typical, facial processing is based on the whole configuration, a conduct that is acquired from age 6 (Carey & Diamond, 1994; Mondloch, Pathman, Maurer, Le Grand, & de Schonen, 2007; Tanaka, Kay, Grinell, Stansfield, & Szchter, 1998) or even age 4 (Freire & Lee, 2001). Research in Developmental Disabilities 33 (2012) 783–790 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 28 November 2011 Received in revised form 2 December 2011 Accepted 2 December 2011 Available online 11 January 2012 Keywords: Down syndrome Intellectual disability Emotions Facial expressions A B S T R A C T The processing of facial expressions of emotions by 23 adults with Down syndrome and moderate intellectual disability was compared with that of adults with intellectual disability of other etiologies (24 matched in cognitive level and 26 with mild intellectual disability). Each participant performed 4 tasks of the Florida Affect Battery and an original task in which they had to match facial expressions after observing the complete face or one of its halves. Adults with Down syndrome did not show any specific difficulties in recognizing facial expressions in spite of showing a poorer discrimination between facial expressions and tended to take more notice of the lower half of the face. ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Dpto. Psicologı ´a Biolo ´ gica y de la Salud, Facultad de Psicologı ´a: C/Iva ´n Pavlov, 6, Universidad Auto ´ noma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Tel.: +34 91 497 45 94; fax: +34 91 497 52 15. E-mail address: fernando.carvajal@uam.es (F. Carvajal). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Research in Developmental Disabilities 0891-4222/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.12.004