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. 2023 Oct;53(10):4021-4034.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05675-z. Epub 2022 Aug 2.

Structural Connectivity and Emotion Recognition Impairment in Children and Adolescents with Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

Ashley F P Sanders  1   2 , Diana A Hobbs  1   3 , Tracey A Knaus  1 , Elliott A Beaton  4
Affiliations

Structural Connectivity and Emotion Recognition Impairment in Children and Adolescents with Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

Ashley F P Sanders et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) exhibit impaired ability to process and understand emotions in others. We measured structural connectivity in children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 29). Compared to controls, those with 22q11.2DS had poorer social skills and more difficulty recognizing facial emotions. Children with 22q11.2DS also had higher fractional anisotropic diffusion in right amygdala to fusiform gyrus white matter pathways. Right amygdala to fusiform gyrus fractional anisotropy values partially mediated the relationship between 22q11.2DS and social skills, as well as the relationship between 22q11.2DS and emotion recognition accuracy. These findings provide insight into the neural origins of social skills deficits seen in 22q11.2DS and may serve as a biomarker for risk of future psychiatric problems.

Keywords: Brain imaging; DiGeorge syndrome; Emotion processing; Face processing; Genetic deletion; Velocardiofacial syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations

Conflict of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Face in the Cloud task
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Probabilistic tractography for seed and termination masks
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mediation model with standardized coefficients. Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mediation model with standardized coefficients. Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.00
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
ROC curves of structural connectivity effects for emotion recognition accuracy and social skills. Note: ROC Receiver operating characteristic; AUC Area under the curve. A ROC of right Amy-FG FA effects for emotion recognition accuracy. B ROC of right Amy-FG FA effects for social skills
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