Processing of stimulus content but not of emotional valence is altered in persons with Williams syndrome.
A P Key, E M Dykens
PMID 27457303WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with Williams syndrome spotted smiling faces accurately but more slowly than typical adults.
Brain responses showed typical adults distinguished faces over the right side and adults with Williams syndrome over the left side, and emotional responses did not differ.
Key findings
01Participants with Williams syndrome were less accurate and slower than typical adults on the smiling-face task.
02Face discrimination in the brain appeared over the right side in typical adults and over the left side in adults with Williams syndrome.
03The groups did not differ in how they processed positive versus negative emotional content.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study included only 19 adults with Williams syndrome and 10 typical adults, so the results may not apply to children, older adults, or people with different ability levels. The typical group was university students or employed adults, while the Williams syndrome group had a mean IQ of 68.79, so the two groups differed in background characteristics. The nonsocial images were not from a standardised set, so emotional reactions to them may not be the same as reactions to everyday situations. The study did not measure everyday attention or behaviour, so it cannot link these laboratory brain responses to daily social functioning. This was not a treatment trial, so it cannot tell therapists whether any intervention changes these processes.
Declared interests
The supplied text lists NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. It does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the hypersocial phenotype as evidence that people with Williams syndrome find faces more emotionally arousing. The study did not support increased perceptual or attentional processing of social information in Williams syndrome, and the groups did not differ in emotional valence discrimination.