Association between Cerebral Shape and Social Use of Language in Williams Syndrome

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Association between Cerebral Shape and Social Use of Language in Williams Syndrome Y. Searcy1*, D. Gothelf1, J. Reilly1, U. Bellugi1, T. Lanre-Amos1, D. L. Mills1, J. R. Korenberg1, A. Galaburda1 and A. L. Reiss1 1 The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, United States Williams syndrome is a neurogenetic disorder resulting from a hemizygous microdeletion at band 7q11.23. It is characterized by aberrant development of the brain and a unique profile of cognitive and behavioral features. We sought to identify the neuroanatomical abnormalities that are most strongly associated with Williams syndrome employing signal detection methodology. Once identified with a Quality Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve, we hypothesized that brain regions distinguishing subjects with Williams syndrome from controls would be linked to the social phenotype of individuals with this disorder. Forty-one adolescents and young adults with Williams syndrome and 40 typically developing controls matched for age and gender were studied. The Quality Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve identified a combination of an enlarged ventral anterior prefrontal cortex and large bending angle of the corpus callosum to distinguish between Williams syndrome and controls with a sensitivity of 85.4% and specificity of 75.0%. Within the Williams syndrome group, bending angle significantly correlated with ventral anterior prefrontal cortex size but not with other morphometric brain measures. Ventral anterior prefrontal size in subjects with Williams syndrome was positively associated with the use of social engagement devices in a narrative task assessing the use of social and affective language. Our findings suggest that aberrant morphology of the ventral anterior prefrontal cortex is a pivotal contributing factor to the abnormal size and shape of the cerebral cortex and to the sociallinguistic phenotype of individuals with Williams syndrome. Conference: 12th International Professional Conference on Williams Syndrome, Garden Grove,CA, United States, 13 Jul - 14 Jul, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Multidisciplinary Poster Session Citation: Searcy Y, Gothelf D, Reilly J, Bellugi U, Lanre-Amos T, Mills DL, Korenberg JR, Galaburda A and Reiss AL (2009). Association between Cerebral Shape and Social Use of Language in Williams Syndrome. Conference Abstract: 12th International Professional Conference on Williams Syndrome. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.07.055 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 04 May 2009; Published Online: 04 May 2009. * Correspondence: Y. Searcy, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, La Jolla, United States, searcy@salk.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Y. Searcy D. Gothelf J. Reilly U. Bellugi T. Lanre-Amos D. L Mills J. R Korenberg A. Galaburda A. L Reiss Google Y. Searcy D. Gothelf J. Reilly U. Bellugi T. Lanre-Amos D. L Mills J. R Korenberg A. Galaburda A. L Reiss Google Scholar Y. Searcy D. Gothelf J. Reilly U. Bellugi T. Lanre-Amos D. L Mills J. R Korenberg A. Galaburda A. L Reiss PubMed Y. Searcy D. Gothelf J. Reilly U. Bellugi T. Lanre-Amos D. L Mills J. R Korenberg A. Galaburda A. L Reiss Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.