Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv University.
Dev Psychopathol. 2017 Oct;29(4):1189-1197. doi: 10.1017/S0954579416001231. Epub 2016 Dec 27.
Individuals with Williams syndrome and those with Down syndrome are both characterized by heightened social interest, although the manifestation is not always similar. Using a dot-probe task, we examined one possible source of difference: allocation of attention to facial expressions of emotion. Thirteen individuals with Williams syndrome (mean age = 19.2 years, range = 10-28.6), 20 with Down syndrome (mean age = 18.8 years, range = 12.1-26.3), and 19 typically developing children participated. The groups were matched for mental age (mean = 5.8 years). None of the groups displayed a bias to angry faces. The participants with Williams syndrome showed a selective bias toward happy faces, whereas the participants with Down syndrome behaved similarly to the typically developing participants with no such bias. Homogeneity in the direction of bias was markedly highest in the Williams syndrome group whose bias appeared to result from enhanced attention capture. They appeared to rapidly and selectively allocate attention toward positive facial expressions. The complexity of social approach behavior and the need to explore other aspects of cognition that may be implicated in this behavior in both syndromes is discussed.
个体患有威廉姆斯综合征和唐氏综合征均表现出高度的社会兴趣，尽管表现并不总是相似的。我们使用点探测任务，检查了一个可能的差异来源：对情绪面部表情的注意力分配。 13 名患有威廉姆斯综合征（平均年龄= 19.2 岁，范围= 10-28.6）的个体，20 名患有唐氏综合征（平均年龄= 18.8 岁，范围= 12.1-26.3）的个体，以及 19 名正常发育的儿童参加了实验。这些组在心理年龄上相匹配（平均= 5.8 岁）。没有一个组表现出对愤怒面孔的偏见。患有威廉姆斯综合征的参与者表现出对快乐面孔的选择性偏见，而唐氏综合征患者的行为与正常发育的参与者没有这种偏见相似。在威廉姆斯综合征组中，偏见的方向一致性最高，其偏见似乎源于注意力的增强捕获。他们似乎迅速而有选择性地将注意力分配到积极的面部表情上。讨论了社会接近行为的复杂性，以及需要探索可能涉及这两种综合征中这种行为的认知的其他方面。
