Interpretation of ambiguous situations: evidence for a dissociation between social and physical threat in Williams syndrome

There is increasing evidence that Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with elevated anxiety that is non-social in nature, including generalised anxiety and fears. To date very little research has examined the cognitive processes associated with this anxiety. In the present research, attentional bias for non-social threatening images in WS was examined using a dot-probe paradigm. Participants were 16 individuals with WS aged between 13 and 34 years and two groups of typically developing controls matched to the WS group on chronological age and attentional control ability respectively. The WS group exhibited a significant attention bias towards threatening images. In contrast, no bias was found for group matched on attentional control and a slight bias away from threat was found in the chronological age matched group. The results are contrasted with recent findings suggesting that individuals with WS do not show an attention bias for threatening faces and discussed in relation to neuroimaging research showing elevated amygdala activation in response to threatening non-social scenes in WS

Autistic Disorder in Patients with Williams-Beuren Syndrome: A Reconsideration of the Williams-Beuren Syndrome Phenotype

International audienceBackground: Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS), a rare developmental disorder caused by deletion of contiguous genes at 7q11.23, has been characterized by strengths in socialization (overfriendliness) and communication (excessive talkativeness). WBS has been often considered as the polar opposite behavioral phenotype to autism. Our objective was to better understand the range of phenotypic expression in WBS and the relationship between WBS and autistic disorder. Methodology: The study was conducted on 9 French individuals aged from 4 to 37 years old with autistic disorder associated with WBS. Behavioral assessments were performed using Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scales. Molecular characterization of the WBS critical region was performed by FISH. Findings: FISH analysis indicated that all 9 patients displayed the common WBS deletion. All 9 patients met ADI-R and ADOS diagnostic criteria for autism, displaying stereotypies and severe impairments in social interaction and communication (including the absence of expressive language). Additionally, patients showed improvement in social communication over time. Conclusions: The results indicate that comorbid autism and WBS is more frequent than expected and suggest that the common WBS deletion can result in a continuum of social communication impairment, ranging from excessive talkativeness and overfriendliness to absence of verbal language and poor social relationships. Appreciation of the possible co-occurrence of WBS and autism challenges the common view that WBS represents the opposite behavioral phenotype of autism, and might lead to improved recognition of WBS in individuals diagnosed with autism

Standardized ADOS Scores: Measuring Severity of Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Dutch Sample

The validity of the calibrated severity scores on the ADOS as reported by Gotham et al. (J Autism Dev Disord 39: 693–705, 2009), was investigated in an independent sample of 1248 Dutch children with 1455 ADOS administrations (modules 1, 2 and 3). The greater comparability between ADOS administrations at different times, ages and in different modules, as reached by Gotham et al. with the calibrated severity measures, seems to be corroborated by the current study for module 1 and to a lesser extent for module 3. For module 2, the calibrated severity scores need to be further investigated within a sample that resembles Gotham’s sample in age and level of verbal functioning

Transcriptome of iPSC-derived neuronal cells reveals a module of co-expressed genes consistently associated with autism spectrum disorder

Evaluation of expression profile in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients is an important approach to understand possible similar functional consequences that may underlie disease pathophysiology regardless of its genetic heterogeneity. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuronal models have been useful to explore this question, but larger cohorts and different ASD endophenotypes still need to be investigated. Moreover, whether changes seen in this in vitro model reflect previous findings in ASD postmortem brains and how consistent they are across the studies remain underexplored questions. We examined the transcriptome of iPSC-derived neuronal cells from a normocephalic ASD cohort composed mostly of high-functioning individuals and from non-ASD individuals. ASD patients presented expression dysregulation of a module of co-expressed genes involved in protein synthesis in neuronal progenitor cells (NPC), and a module of genes related to synapse/neurotransmission and a module related to translation in neurons. Proteomic analysis in NPC revealed potential molecular links between the modules dysregulated in NPC and in neurons. Remarkably, the comparison of our results to a series of transcriptome studies revealed that the module related to synapse has been consistently found as upregulated in iPSC-derived neurons-which has an expression profile more closely related to fetal brain-while downregulated in postmortem brain tissue, indicating a reliable association of this network to the disease and suggesting that its dysregulation might occur in different directions across development in ASD individuals. Therefore, the expression pattern of this network might be used as biomarker for ASD and should be experimentally explored as a therapeutic target

A multimeasure approach to investigating affective appraisal of social information in Williams syndrome

People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been consistently described as showing heightened sociability, gregariousness, and interest in people, in conjunction with an uneven cognitive profile and mild to moderate intellectual or learning disability. To explore the mechanisms underlying this unusual social–behavioral phenotype, we investigated whether individuals with WS show an atypical appraisal style and autonomic responsiveness to emotionally laden images with social or nonsocial content. Adolescents and adults with WS were compared to chronological age-matched and nonverbal mental age-matched groups in their responses to positive and negative images with or without social content, using measures of self-selected viewing time (SSVT), autonomic arousal reflected in pupil dilation measures, and likeability ratings. The participants with WS looked significantly longer at the social images compared to images without social content and had reduced arousal to the negative social images compared to the control groups. In contrast to the comparison groups, the explicit ratings of likeability in the WS group did not correlate with their SSVT; instead, they reflected an appraisal style of more extreme ratings. This distinctive pattern of viewing interest, likeability ratings, and autonomic arousal to images with social content in the WS group suggests that their heightened social drive may be related to atypical functioning of reward-related brain systems reflected in SSVT and autonomic reactivity measures, but not in explicit ratings

Addressing the educational needs of children with Williams syndrome : a rather neglected area of research?

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder associated with physical health problems, limitations in cognitive abilities and increased risk of mental health difficulties. This profile of complex needs may make it challenging to support children with WS in schools. Surprisingly, in the current international move for inclusion, limited research exists on the educational provision and academic achievements of children with WS, including the non-existing literature on their voices and the perspectives of key stakeholders. This letter calls for additional research on the risk and protective factors associated with the educational outcomes of these children, the perspectives of the children themselves and the development of the evidence-base about the effectiveness of education intervention programs

Anxiety disorders in children with Williams syndrome, their mothers, and their siblings: Implications for the etiology of anxiety disorders

This study examines the prevalence of anxiety disorders in children with Williams syndrome (WS), their sibling closest in age, and their mothers as well as the predictors of anxiety in these groups. The prevalence of anxiety disorders was assessed and compared to that in the general population. Children with WS had a significantly higher prevalence of specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and separation anxiety in comparison to children in the general population. While mothers had a higher prevalence of GAD than population controls, the excess was accounted for by mothers who had onset after the birth of their WS child. The siblings had rates similar to the general population. This pattern of findings suggests the presence of a gene in the WS region whose deletion predisposes to anxiety disorders. It is also worthwhile to investigate relations between genes deleted in WS and genes previously implicated in anxiety disorders

Neurobiology of social behavior abnormalities in autism and Williams syndrome

Social behavior is a basic behavior mediated by multiple brain regions and neural circuits, and is crucial for the survival and development of animals and humans. Two neuropsychiatric disorders that have prominent social behavior abnormalities are autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which is characterized mainly by hyposociability, and Williams syndrome (WS), whose subjects exhibit hypersociability. Here we review the unique properties of social behavior in ASD and WS, and discuss the major theories in social behavior in the context of these disorders. We conclude with a discussion of the research questions needing further exploration to enhance our understanding of social behavior abnormalities