School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Australia.
Res Dev Disabil. 2013 Dec;34(12):4608-16. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.09.042. Epub 2013 Oct 24.
The neurodevelopmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) has been associated with a social phenotype of hypersociability, non-social anxiety and an unusual attraction to faces. The current study uses eye tracking to explore attention allocation to emotionally expressive faces. Eye gaze and behavioural measures of anxiety and social reciprocity were investigated in adolescents and adults with WS when compared to typically developing individuals of comparable verbal mental age (VMA) and chronological age (CA). Results showed significant associations between high levels of behavioural anxiety and attention allocation away from the eye regions of threatening facial expressions in WS. The results challenge early claims of a unique attraction to the eyes in WS and suggest that individual differences in anxiety may mediate the allocation of attention to faces in WS.
神经发育障碍威廉姆斯综合征（WS）与社交过度活跃、非社交焦虑和对面部的异常吸引力有关。本研究使用眼动追踪技术来探索对表情丰富的面部的注意力分配。当与具有可比言语心理年龄（VMA）和实际年龄（CA）的典型发育个体进行比较时，研究人员研究了 WS 青少年和成年人的眼动注视和焦虑及社会互惠行为测量。结果表明，WS 个体的行为焦虑水平较高与回避威胁性面部表情眼部区域的注意力分配之间存在显著关联。研究结果挑战了 WS 对眼睛具有独特吸引力的早期说法，并表明焦虑个体差异可能会影响 WS 个体对面部的注意力分配。
