Executive functions in individuals with Williams syndrome

Menghini, Deny; Addona, Francesca; Costanzo, Floriana; Vicari, Stefano

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01287.x

Cited by 83 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…With regard to WS, Menghini, Addona, Costanzo, and Vicari (2010) found a specific visuospatial set-shifting impairment, and Atkinson et al (2003) observed a relative difficulty with visuospatial, but not verbal, inhibition. Correspondingly, Lanfranchi, Cornoldi, and Vianello (2004) suggested that ELWM skills in individuals with DS may be marginally more compromised with regard to verbal stimuli.…”

Section: Executive Function In Williams and Down Syndromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive function in Williams and Down syndromes

Carney

Brown

Henry

2013

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Few investigations into the executive function (EF) skills of these groups have examined the effect of verbal/visuospatial task type on performance. Analogous verbal and visuospatial measures were administered to these populations within four EF domains: executive-loaded working memory (ELWM), inhibition, fluency and set-shifting. Performance in both groups was compared to that of typically-developing (TD) children using regression techniques controlling for potentially influential cognitive/developmental factors. Individuals with WS showed the expected relative visuospatial difficulties, as indicated by poorer performance than TD individuals, on tests of ELWM and fluency. Individuals with DS displayed the expected relative verbal difficulty in the domain of set-shifting. In addition, each population showed pervasive deficits across modality in one domain; ELWM for individuals with DS, and inhibition for individuals with WS. Individuals with WS and DS showed EF difficulties in comparison to a TD group, but, their executive performance was affected by EF task type (verbal/visuospatial) and EF domain in different ways. While the findings indicated that EF in these populations is characterised by a range of specific strengths and weaknesses, it was also suggested that the relative verbal/visuospatial strengths associated with each population do not consistently manifest across EF domains. Lastly, syndrome specificity was indicated by the differences in groups' performance patterns. Permanent repository linkKeywords: Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, executive function. INTRODUCTION Cognitive profiles associated with Williams and Down syndromesThe genetic conditions Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS) are characterised by roughly opposing ability profiles. Individuals with WS display relative verbal strengths alongside impairments on visuospatial tasks (Bellugi, Korenberg, & Klima, 2001;Pani, Mervis, & Robinson, 1999), particularly those involving a constructive element (Hoffman, Landau, & Pagani, 2003). Saccadic abnormalities (Brown et al., 2003;van der Geest, et al., 2004), and problems with location encoding (Farran & Jarrold, 2005), as well as the perceptual grouping of elements (Farran, 2005), have all been suggested as contributory factors with regard to these spatial difficulties, while vulnerability of the dorsal stream -a brain region thought to mediate the processing of spatial location and movement (Milner & Goodale, 1995) -has been implicated at the neurological level (e.g. Atkinson et al., 2003;Galaburda & Bellugi, 2000 Alberti, & Vianello, 2010;Porter, Coltheart, & Langdon, 2007;Rhodes, Riby, Park, Fraser, & Campbell, 2010). However, studies have not generally acknowledged verbal/visuospatial task modality as a potential contributing influence. This is surprising when the ability profiles associated with each population are considered. Furthermore, EF performance has been...

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Section: Executive Function In Williams and Down Syndromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive function in Williams and Down syndromes

Carney

Brown

Henry

2013

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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“…This is of particular importance when assessing whether cognitive training is appropriate for individuals with ID, as processes such as WM are already severely compromised and may prevent children from engaging with the program at all. Indeed children with Autism have been shown to have impairments in WM (Steele, Minshew, Luna, & Sweeney, 2007) as well as those with WS , (Menghini, Addona, Costanzo, & Vicari, 2010;Rhodes, Riby, Fraser & Campbell, 2011), FXS (Munir, Cornish, & Wilding, 2000;Schapiro et al, 1995) and DS (Lanfranchi, Cornoldi, & Vianello, 2004).…”

Section: Attention Training Vs Working Memory Training In Intellectuamentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive training as a resolution for early executive function difficulties in children with intellectual disabilities

Kirk

Gray

Riby

et al. 2015

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Research in Developmental Disabilities. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A denitive version was subsequently published in Research in Developmental Disabilities, 38, March 2015, 10.1016/j.ridd.2014 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Core executive functions (EF) such as attention, and working memory have been strongly associated with academic achievement, language development and behavioural stability. In the case of children who are vulnerable to cognitive and learning problems because of an underlying intellectual disability, EF difficulties will likely exacerbate an already compromised cognitive system. The current review examines cognitive training programs that aim to improve EF, specifically focusing on the potential of this type of intervention for children who have intellectual disabilities. We conclude that despite considerable discrepancies regarding reported intervention effects, these inconsistencies can be attributed to flaws in both program and study design.We discuss the steps needed to address these limitations and to facilitate the advancement of nonpharmaceutical interventions for children with intellectual disabilities.

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“…Several recent studies have reported that individuals with WS exhibit deficits in response inhibition (Menghini, Addona, Costanzo, & Vicari, 2010;Mobbs et al, 2007) and broader executive function abilities including switching (Rhodes, Riby, Park, Fraser, & Campbell, 2010). These deficits in executive function have been linked with atypical frontal lobe activation (Mobbs et al, 2007) along with possible abnormalities in the left temporal lobe (Campbell et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%