Executive function in girls with turner's syndrome

Abstract

Turner's syndrome (TS), a genetic disorder affecting girls, has a well‐described neurocognitive profile including difficulty with visuospatial processing and attention skills. The goal of this study was to investigate executive function and attention abilities in girls with TS. Executive skills include the ability to plan, organize, monitor, and execute multistep problem‐solving processes. Measures of attention and executive function were analyzed from 105 girls with TS and from 153 female controls matched for age, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Three age groups were evaluated in order to assess developmental patterns in executive skills. The TS group (all ages) performed significantly less well than did controls on measures of attention, including the Freedom From Distractibility factor of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐Revised and the Test of Variables of Attention. In the executive function domain, girls with TS performed at levels comparable to controls on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test and on measures of semantic clustering, but they exhibited significant deficits on the Rey‐Osterrieth organizational component and the Tower of Hanoi. In summary, girls with TS showed evidence of increased impulsivity at all ages studied. Their performance on tests of executive function with complex spatial demands showed similar impairment at all ages studied. Further exploration of the contribution of multimodal factors and the resulting neurocognitive profile in individuals with TS is warranted.