Attention Bias to Emotional Faces Varies by IQ and Anxiety in Williams Syndrome.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- McGrath LM; School of Education, American University, Gray Hall, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20016-8030, USA. mcgrath@american.edu.; Oates JM; Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC, USA.; Dai YG; Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Dodd HF; School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.; Waxler J; Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Clements CC; Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.; Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.; Weill S; Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Hoffnagle A; Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Anderson E; Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; MacRae R; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.; Mullett J; Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; McDougle CJ; Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Pober BR; Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Smoller JW; Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Source
- Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7904301 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-3432 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01623257 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Autism Dev Disord Subsets: MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) often experience significant anxiety. A promising approach to anxiety intervention has emerged from cognitive studies of attention bias to threat. To investigate the utility of this intervention in WS, this study examined attention bias to happy and angry faces in individuals with WS (N = 46). Results showed a significant difference in attention bias patterns as a function of IQ and anxiety. Individuals with higher IQ or higher anxiety showed a significant bias toward angry, but not happy faces, whereas individuals with lower IQ or lower anxiety showed the opposite pattern. These results suggest that attention bias interventions to modify a threat bias may be most effectively targeted to anxious individuals with WS with relatively high IQ.