Linking social behaviour and anxiety to attention to emotional faces in Williams syndrome

Kirk, H.E.; Hocking, D.R.; Riby, D.M.; Cornish, K.M.

doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.09.042

Linking social behaviour and anxiety to attention to emotional faces in Williams syndrome

Kirk, H.E.; Hocking, D.R.; Riby, D.M.; Cornish, K.M.

Authors

H.E. Kirk

D.R. Hocking

Professor Deborah Riby deborah.riby@durham.ac.uk
Professor

K.M. Cornish

Abstract

The neurodevelopmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) has been associated with a social phenotype of hypersociability, non-social anxiety and an unusual attraction to faces. The current study uses eye tracking to explore attention allocation to emotionally expressive faces. Eye gaze and behavioural measures of anxiety and social reciprocity were investigated in adolescents and adults with WS when compared to typically developing individuals of comparable verbal mental age (VMA) and chronological age (CA). Results showed significant associations between high levels of behavioural anxiety and attention allocation away from the eye regions of threatening facial expressions in WS. The results challenge early claims of a unique attraction to the eyes in WS and suggest that individual differences in anxiety may mediate the allocation of attention to faces in WS.

Citation

Kirk, H., Hocking, D., Riby, D., & Cornish, K. (2013). Linking social behaviour and anxiety to attention to emotional faces in Williams syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34(12), 4608-4616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2013.09.042

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Dec 4, 2013
Publicly Available Date	Dec 16, 2014
Journal	Research in Developmental Disabilities
Print ISSN	0891-4222
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	34
Issue	12
Pages	4608-4616
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2013.09.042
Keywords	Williams syndrome, Anxiety, Eye gaze, Emotional expressions, Social responsiveness.

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Copyright Statement
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 reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 12, December 2013, 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.09.042.