Impaired behavioral and neural representation of scenes in Williams syndrome.

ABSTRACT: Boundaries are crucial to our representation of the geometric shape of scenes, which can be used to reorient in space. Behavioral research has shown that children and adults share exquisite sensitivity to a defining feature of a boundary: its vertical extent. Imaging studies have shown that this boundary property is represented in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) among typically developed (TD) adults. Here, we show that sensitivity to the vertical extent of scene boundaries is impaired at both the behavioral and neural level in people with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic deficit that results in severely impaired spatial functions. Behavioral reorientation was tested in three boundary conditions: a flat Mat, a 5 cm high Curb, and full Walls. Adults with WS could reorient in a rectangu

SUBMITTER: Ferrara K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6888907 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature