Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Section I Schizophrenia
- Section II Mood Disorders
- Section III Anxiety Disorders
- Section IV Cognitive Disorders
- Section V Substance Abuse
- Section VI Eating Disorders
- Section VII Developmental Disorders
- 36 Neuroimaging of autism spectrum disorders
- 37 Neuroimaging of Williams–Beuren syndrome
- 38 Neuroimaging of developmental disorders: commentary
- Index
- References
37 - Neuroimaging of Williams–Beuren syndrome
from Section VII - Developmental Disorders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Section I Schizophrenia
- Section II Mood Disorders
- Section III Anxiety Disorders
- Section IV Cognitive Disorders
- Section V Substance Abuse
- Section VI Eating Disorders
- Section VII Developmental Disorders
- 36 Neuroimaging of autism spectrum disorders
- 37 Neuroimaging of Williams–Beuren syndrome
- 38 Neuroimaging of developmental disorders: commentary
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In the last decades, studying genetic neuropsychiatric syndromes at multiple levels has proven to be a powerful means for elucidating the pathways of both typical and atypical neurodevelopment. Within this context, Williams–Beuren syndrome, or Williams syndrome (WS) for short, has been established as model syndrome of special interest to investigate gene–brain–behavior relationships and a “unique window to genetic contributions to neural function” (Meyer-Lindenberg et al.,2006, p. 391).
WS is a relatively rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a combination of distinctive clinical, cognitive, behavioral, genetic and neuroanatomical features. It was first described in the early 1960s by two groups of cardiologists as a condition involving a constellation of cardiovascular abnormalities, hypercalcemia, peculiar facial “elfin-like” features, and mild to moderate mental retardation (Beuren et al., 1962; Williams et al., 1961).
Insights into the nature of WS culminated in the mid 1990s with the identification of the genetic cause, a so-called microdeletion (see below, Genetic profile). Since then, several neuroimaging studies, using a wide range of new imaging techniques, have attempted to uncover the structural and functional neural substrates of WS, providing an emerging understanding of brain mechanisms mediating between genetic variation and cognitive-behavioral phenotypes in humans.
The aim of this chapter is to review imaging studies delineating the unique neuropsychiatric features of WS, as well as recent advances in investigating the neural substrates of the disorder, which have provided significant contributions to unraveling the impact of a specific genetic defect on brain structure and function.
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- Information
- Understanding Neuropsychiatric DisordersInsights from Neuroimaging, pp. 537 - 554Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010