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).