The prevalence of sleep problems in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) seems to vary between genetic syndromes associated with ID. Different types of sleep disturbances may indicate underlying causes of sleep problems and these types of sleep disturbances may vary between different genetic syndromes. We examined and compared five types…

The aim was to investigate the hemodynamic responses to isometric handgrip exercise (HG) and examine the role of the muscle metaboreflex in the exercise pressor response in individuals with intellectual disability (IID) and non-disabled control subjects. Eleven males with mild-moderate intellectual disabilities and eleven non-disabled males…

Sleep EEG alterations are emerging features of several developmental disabilities, but detailed quantitative EEG data on the sleep phenotype of patients with Williams syndrome (WS, 7q11.23 microdeletion) is still lacking. Based on laboratory (Study I) and home sleep records (Study II) here we report WS-related features of the patterns of…

People with Williams syndrome (WS) are said to have sociable and extremely trusting personalities, approaching strangers without hesitation. This study investigated whether people with WS are less likely than controls to attribute negative intent to others when interpreting a series of ambiguous pictures. This may, at least partially, explain…

The objective of this study was to investigate the psycholinguistic abilities of children with Williams syndrome (WS) and typically developing children using the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA). Performance on the ITPA was analysed in a group with WS (N=20, mean age=8.5 years, SD=1.62) and two typically developing groups,…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder characterized in part by anxiety and behavioral difficulties. We examine the effectiveness and adverse effects of antidepressant, anxiolytic, and antipsychotic medications in individuals with WS. A total of 513 parents/caregivers completed a survey of psychotropic medication usage…

Typically developing (TD) 6-year-olds and 9-year-olds, and older children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) navigated through brick-wall mazes in a virtual environment. Participants were shown a route through three mazes, each with 6 turns. In each maze the floor of each path section was a different colour such that colour acted as an…

Prior research suggests that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have a disposition towards anxiety. Information regarding this is typically derived from parents and carers. The perspectives of the individuals with WS are rarely included in research of this nature. We examined the mental health of 19 adults with WS using explicit (psychiatric…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, often referred as being characterized by dissociation between verbal and non-verbal abilities, although the number of studies disputing this proposal is emerging. Indeed, although they have been traditionally reported as displaying increased speech fluency, this topic has not been…

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) has a complex phenotype with more than 180 characteristics, including cardiac anomalies, cleft palate, intellectual disabilities, a typical facial morphology, and mental health problems. However, the variable phenotype makes it difficult to predict clinical outcome, such as the high prevalence of psychosis among…

Individuals diagnosed with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known form of inherited intellectual disability, are reported to exhibit considerable deficits in mathematical skills that are often attributed to brain-based abnormalities associated with the syndrome. We examined whether participants with FXS would display emergent…

22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) is a common microdeletion disorder associated with mild to moderate intellectual disability and specific neurocognitive deficits, particularly in visual-motor and attentional abilities. Currently there is evidence that the visual-motor profile of 22q11DS is not entirely mediated by intellectual disability and…

Intellectual disabilities (ID) are one of the largest, most complex, and frequently studied of the mental health and medical specialty areas. Thousands of papers have been published dating back to the early work on IQ testing more than a century ago. Many reviews have been published on specific topics with the field of ID, but to date no papers…

This study was aimed at investigating the semantic integration ability of people with WS in building up a coherent and gist theme from the context of presented sentences. Previous studies have indicated rich lexical semantic knowledge and typical semantic priming in this clinical group, but atypical brainwave patterns have been reported in studies…

Being severely overweight is a distinctive clinical feature of Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). This explorative study aims to characterise balance capacity in PWS as compared to non-genetically obese patients (O) and to a group of normal-weight individuals (CG). We enrolled 14 PWS patients: 8 females and 6 males (BMI = 41.3 [plus or minus] 7.3…