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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access published online on October 20, 2006
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, doi:10.1093/scan/nsl035
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received August 18, 2006
Accepted September 9, 2006

Special Issue Paper

Model syndromes for investigating social cognitive and affective neuroscience: a comparison of autism and Williams syndrome

Helen Tager-Flusberg 1 *, Daniela Plesa Skwerer 1, and Robert M. Joseph 1

1 Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, E-mail: htagerf{at}bu.edu


  Abstract

Autism and Williams syndrome are genetically based neurodevelopmental disorders that present strikingly different social phenotypes. Autism involves fundamental impairments in social reciprocity and communication, whereas people with Williams syndrome are highly sociable and engaging. This article reviews the behavioral and neuroimaging literature that has explored the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie these contrasting social phenotypes, focusing on studies of face processing. The article concludes with a discussion of how the social phenotypes of both syndromes may be characterized by impaired connectivity between the amygdala and other critical regions in the ‘social brain’.

Keywords: autism; Williams syndrome; face processing; emotion processing; amygdala.
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