Global Spatial Relations in Face Representations Shown in “Ecological Dyslexia” of Australian Aboriginals and in “Western” Dyslexics

Abstract

Two culturally diverse populations, 297 Western European dyslexic youths and 269 Australian Aboriginal school children (80 to 90% of whom meet the operationally defined criteria for “dyslexia”) contain a subgroup of similar proportions (35% and 39%, respectively) who on the Draw-A-Person test also show specific “neolithic face” misrepresentation characteristic of the pre-literate period of “neolithic art.” By contrast only 8% and 4% respectively of 578 Western European eulexics and of 48 Australian European school children drew such specifically distorted face proportions. These findings suggest a subgroup of dyslexia who show a subtle spatial-relational dysfunction, interpreted as being primarily linked to Aboriginal school children's ecologically determined lack of practice of certain brain systems (particularly of the hippocampus).