Regionally Specific Increased Volume of the Amygdala in Williams Syndrome: Evidence from Surface-based Modeling

Overview

Journal Hum Brain Mapp

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Neurology

Date 2012 Nov 16

PMID 23152007

Citations 9

Authors

Brian W Haas

Kristen Sheau

Ryan G Kelley

Paul M Thompson

Allan L Reiss

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Williams syndrome (WS) is a condition caused by a contiguous deletion of approximately 26-28 genes from chromosome 7, and is characterized by abnormal social and emotional processing and abnormal structure and function of the amygdala. Prior studies show that the amygdala is relatively enlarged in WS, but very little is known regarding the regional specificity of increased amygdalar volume in this condition. Here we investigated the regional specificity of structural alterations of the amygdala in WS, compared to a typically developing (TD) control group. We acquired high resolution brain MRI data from 79 participants (39 WS, 40 TD) and used a surface-based analytical modeling approach. The WS group exhibited several areas of increased radial expansion of the amygdalar surface and no areas of decreased radial expansion of the amygdalar surface compared to TD controls. The areas found to exhibit particularly increased radial expansion in WS included the bilateral posterior cortical nucleus, lateral nucleus, and the central nucleus. This greater regional and anatomical specificity of altered amygdala structure in WS contributes to a model relating genetic risk in WS to the development of key brain regions for social and emotional functioning.

Citing Articles

Autism and Williams syndrome: truly mirror conditions in the socio-cognitive domain?.

Niego A, Benitez-Burraco A Int J Dev Disabil. 2022; 68(4):399-415.

PMID: 35937179 PMC: 9351567. DOI: 10.1080/20473869.2020.1817717.

Williams Syndrome, Human Self-Domestication, and Language Evolution.

Niego A, Benitez-Burraco A Front Psychol. 2019; 10:521.

PMID: 30936846 PMC: 6431629. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00521.

Neurobiology of social behavior abnormalities in autism and Williams syndrome.

Barak B, Feng G Nat Neurosci. 2018; 19(6):647-655.

PMID: 29323671 PMC: 4896837. DOI: 10.1038/nn.4276.

A postmortem stereological study of the amygdala in Williams syndrome.

Lew C, Groeniger K, Bellugi U, Stefanacci L, Schumann C, Semendeferi K Brain Struct Funct. 2017; 223(4):1897-1907.

PMID: 29270815 PMC: 5982107. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-017-1592-y.

Personal Space Regulation in Williams Syndrome: The Effect of Familiarity.

Lough E, Flynn E, Riby D J Autism Dev Disord. 2016; 46(10):3207-15.

PMID: 27422401 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-2864-8.

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