|
|
|
| Social Perception in Williams Syndrome |
 |
This
project is part of an ongoing research program on Williams syndrome
(WMS) funded since 1996 by the National Institute on Child Health
and Human Development. The general goals of this research are to understand
the neurocognitive bases of the social abilities and disabilities
in children and adults with Williams syndrome.
Project Aims
People with WMS have good face processing skills and language ability.
Additionally, they are more likely to notice subtle changes to social
aspects of complex scenes, respond more empathically toward a person
in distress, and appear to find social-affective stimuli less threatening
on psychophysiological measures of arousal than other people. In our
current line of research, we attempt to advance our understanding
of the social phenotype of Williams syndrome and to explore the mechanisms
that underlie the unique social-affective features that define this
neurodevelopmental disorder by addressing the following questions:
- Do people with Williams Syndrome interpret eye gaze information
in the same way as other people?
- Do people with Williams Syndrome show greater sensitivity to
affective information in faces compared to others using implicit
tasks?
- Do people with Williams Syndrome attend more than other people
to social information in dynamic scenes, as evidenced by eye-tracking
data?
- Do people with Williams Syndrome find social stimuli more rewarding
than other people?
- Do people with Williams Syndrome find social-affective stimuli
less threatening, as measured by psychophysiological arousal,
than other people?
|
|
|
|
