Normal Performance in Non-Visual Social Cognition Tasks in Women with Turner Syndrome

Abstract

Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal disorder in women resulting from a partial or complete absence of the X chromosome. In addition to physical and hormonal dysfunctions, along with a unique neurocognitive profile, women with TS are reported to suffer from social functioning difficulties. Yet, it is unclear whether these difficulties stem from impairments in social cognition per se or from other deficits that characterize TS but are not specific to social cognition. Previous research that has probed social functioning in TS is equivocal regarding the source of these psychosocial problems since they have mainly used tasks that were dependent on visual-spatial skills, which are known to be compromised in TS. In the present study, we tested 26 women with TS and 26 matched participants on three social cognition tasks that did not require any visual-spatial capacities but rather relied on auditory-verbal skills. The results revealed that in all three tasks the TS participants did not differ from their control counterparts. The same TS cohort was found, in an earlier study, to be impaired, relative to controls, in other social cognition tasks that were dependent on visual-spatial skills. Taken together these findings suggest that the social problems, documented in TS, may be related to non-specific spatial-visual factors that affect their social cognition skills.

Keywords: Turner syndrome; emotional expressions; faux-pas; social cognition; theory of mind; visual-spatial skills.

Figure 1

Top—accuracy in the auditory expression identification task as a function of group (TS and TD). Bottom—accuracy in the facial expression identification task as a function of group (TS and TD). The bottom graph is reprinted from Anaki et al. (20). Face perception in women with TS and its underlying factors, Neuropsychologia, 90, 274–285, with permission from Elsevier. Note—*p ≤ 0.05, ^†significant only in a three-way interaction which included Group, Expression Type, and Morphing Level. TS, Turner syndrome; TD, typically developing.

Figure 2

Turner syndrome (TS) and typically developing (TD) groups performance in the false belief task (first-order, second-order questions).

Figure 3

Turner syndrome (TS) and typically developing (TD) groups performance (proportions) in the recognition of faux-pas task.

Figure 4

Accuracy in faux-pas affective and cognitive questions for Turner syndrome (TS) and typically developing (TD) women.

Figure 5

A theoretical model of social cognition in Turner syndrome (TS) and its relationship to other perceptual and cognitive capacities. The broken lines represent TS impairments while the full lines represent intact capacities.