title: Attention Bias to Emotional Faces Varies by IQ and Anxiety in Williams Syndrome.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Education, American University, Gray Hall, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20016-8030, USA. mcgrath@american.edu.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6928-9656
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Joyce M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Oates
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Yael G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
authors.forename: Helen F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Waxler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.|Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Caitlin C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Clements
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Sydney
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weill
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoffnagle
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: MacRae
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mullett
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: McDougle
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Barbara R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Pober
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Jordan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Smoller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D000070379:Attentional Bias; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018980:Williams Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Attention bias; Emotional faces; Social dot-probe; Williams syndrome