The processing of facial expressions of emotions by 23 adults with Down syndrome and moderate intellectual disability was compared with that of adults with intellectual disability of other etiologies (24 matched in cognitive level and 26 with mild intellectual disability). Each participant performed 4 tasks of the Florida Affect Battery and an…

Raven matrices are used for assessing fluid intelligence and the intellectual level of groups with low intelligence. Our study addresses qualitative analysis of information processing in Raven matrices performance among individuals with intellectual disability with that of their typically developed (TD) counterparts. Twenty-three adults with…

Executive functions are a set of high cognitive abilities that control and regulate other functions and behaviors and are crucial for successful adaptation. Deficits in executive functions are frequently described in developmental disorders, which are characterized by disadaptive behavior. However, executive functions are not widely examined in…

This study determined whether the cardiac autonomic function of adults with Down syndrome (DS) differs from that of nondisabled persons during submaximal dynamic exercise. Thirteen participants with DS and 12 nondisabled individuals performed maximal and submaximal treadmill tests with metabolic and heart rate (HR) measurements. Spectral analysis…

Persons with Down syndrome (DS) are at high risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and there is compelling evidence of autonomic dysfunction in these individuals. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether a combined aerobic and resistance exercise intervention produces similar results in cardiac autonomic function between…

Patients affected by Down (DS) and Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) are characterised by some common clinical and functional features including gait disorders and reduced postural control. The aim of our study was to quantitatively compare postural control in adult PWS and DS. We studied 12 PWS and 19 DS adult patients matched for age, height, weight…

The voice quality of individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) is generally described as husky, monotonous and raucous. On the other hand, the voice of DS children is characterized by breathiness, roughness, and nasality and is typically low pitched. However, research on phonation and intonation in these participants is limited. The present study was…

Over the last decade a significant increase in the life expectancy of people with Down syndrome (DS) has been observed, which has caused a higher incidence of morbidity as they age. However, there is a lack of literature regarding morbidity and hospitalization of adults with DS. Analysis of 297 hospitalizations of 120 adults with DS aged 18-73…

The goal of this work was to analyze postural control in Down syndrome (DS) participants considering three different groups composed by children, teenagers and adults with DS. An analysis of the centre of pressure (COP) displacement during standing position was therefore performed for the three groups of subjects. The obtained signal of COP was…

Inhibition of inappropriate responses allows to shape the motor behavior accordingly to the context in which a subject acts and is an essential executive function. Inhibition has been poorly investigated in Down Syndrome (DS) patients. We tested, using a countermanding task, the inhibitory control in a group of DS patients and in a group of…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of behavior problems among people with administratively defined intellectual disability (ID) and identify possible risk markers for behavior problems using the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI). Sixty-two percent of the ID population (n = 915) had a behavior problem (self-injurious,…

Studies into the effects of ageing on language in adults with Down syndrome (DS) have tended to rely on measures that lack sensitivity to change because they fail to explore across linguistic domains or rely on proxy reports. The study aim was to use measures of receptive and expressive language from studies of younger individuals with DS in…

Facial expression processing and the attribution of facial emotions to a context were investigated in adults with Down syndrome (DS) in two experiments. Their performances were compared with those of a child control group matched for receptive vocabulary. The ability to process faces without emotional content was controlled for, and no differences…

The diagnosis of dementia in Alzheimer's disease remains at times problematic in adults with intellectual disability. The analysis of 5-year consecutive data developed a researched-based clinical screening tool for dementia in Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome. The Adaptive Behaviour Dementia Questionnaire (ABDQ) is a 15-item…

Since previous investigations reported improvements in cognition of patients with dementia after acetyl-L-carnitine therapy and since there is an increased risk for persons with Down syndrome to develop Alzheimer disease, this study was designed to investigate the effect of acetyl-L-carnitine administration on neurological, intellectual, and…