Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Peabody Box #40, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Brain Cogn. 2011 Nov;77(2):201-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.08.008. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, including widespread problems with attention. However, the specific nature of their attentional difficulties, such as inappropriate attentional allocation and/or poor attentional disengagement abilities, has yet to be elucidated. Furthermore, it is unknown if there is an underlying difficulty with the temporal dynamics of attention in WS or if their attentional difficulties are task-dependent, because previous studies have examined attention in established areas of deficit and atypicality (specifically, visuospatial and face processing). In this study, we examined attentional processing in 14 adults with WS (20-59 years) and 17 typically developing controls (19-39 years) using an attentional blink (AB) paradigm. The AB is the decreased ability to detect a second target when it is presented in close proximity to an initial target. Overall, adults with WS had an AB that was prolonged in duration, but no different in magnitude, compared with typically developing control participants. AB performance was not explained by IQ, working memory, or processing speed in either group. Thus, results suggest that the attention problems in WS are primarily due to general attentional disengagement difficulties rather than inappropriate attentional allocation.
威廉姆斯综合征（WS）是一种神经发育障碍，其特征是具有广泛的注意力问题，表现出独特的行为和认知特征。然而，他们的注意力困难的具体性质，如注意力分配不当和/或注意力脱离能力差，尚未阐明。此外，尚不清楚 WS 是否存在注意力的时间动态方面的潜在困难，或者他们的注意力困难是否取决于任务，因为之前的研究已经检查了在既定的缺陷和非典型区域（特别是视觉空间和面部处理）的注意力。在这项研究中，我们使用注意力眨眼（AB）范式检查了 14 名 WS 成人（20-59 岁）和 17 名正常发育对照者（19-39 岁）的注意力处理。AB 是指当第二个目标接近初始目标时，检测第二个目标的能力下降。总的来说，与正常发育的对照组相比，WS 成人的 AB 持续时间延长，但幅度没有差异。在两组中，AB 表现均不能用智商、工作记忆或处理速度来解释。因此，结果表明，WS 中的注意力问题主要是由于普遍的注意力脱离困难，而不是注意力分配不当。
