Attentional disengagement in adults with Williams syndrome

Abstract

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.

Fig. 1. AB Paradigm

Fig. 2

Average Target Detection (a') in Single Target and Dual Target Conditions for WS and TD groups. Error bars represent ± 1 st. error. The WS group performed significantly more poorly than the TD group in the T1 only (t₂₉=3.991, p=0.001) but not the T2 only condition (t₂₉=1.886, p=0.073). In the dual target condition, the WS group performed more poorly than the TD group at detecting T1 (F_1,29=18.483, p<0.001) and T2 (F_1,29=5.043, p=0.033). In the dual target condition, there was also a main effect of Lag Position for T2 detection (F_3,27=10.437, p<0.001). No Group X Lag interactions were noted for either T1 or T2 in the dual target condition.