Anxiety and autonomic response to social-affective stimuli in individuals with Williams syndrome

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities 2016-12, Vol.59, p.387-398
• Main Authors: Ng, Rowena, Bellugi, Ursula, Järvinen, Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Adult; Affect; Anger; Anxiety; Anxiety - physiopathology; Anxiety - psychology; Arousal; Autonomic nervous system; Autonomic Nervous System - physiopathology; Case-Control Studies; Electrodermal activity; Emotion; Facial Recognition; Female; Galvanic Skin Response; Heart Rate; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Photic Stimulation; Social behaviour; Social Perception; Stress regulation; Voice; Williams syndrome; Williams Syndrome - physiopathology; Williams Syndrome - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2016.08.017

•The link between autonomic responsivity towards socioaffective stimuli and anxiety was investigated among those with Williams syndrome (WS).•Those with WS yielded higher anxiety ratings than typically developing (TD) individuals.•Individuals with WS showed a specific difficulty in recognising anger across the social stimuli.•No significant group differences were observed in autonomic reactivity to social-affective stimuli.•Less autonomic arousal to angry social stimuli was related to higher anxiety in WS uniquely. Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic condition characterized by an unusual “hypersocial” personality juxtaposed by high anxiety. Recent evidence suggests that autonomic reactivity to affective face stimuli is disorganised in WS, which may contribute to emotion dysregulation and/or social disinhibition. Electrodermal activity (EDA) and mean interbeat interval (IBI) of 25 participants with WS (19 − 57 years old) and 16 typically developing (TD; 17–43 years old) adults were measured during a passive presentation of affective face and voice stimuli. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was administered to examine associations between autonomic reactivity to social-affective stimuli and anxiety symptomatology. The WS group was characterized by higher overall anxiety symptomatology, and poorer anger recognition in social visual and aural stimuli relative to the TD group. No between-group differences emerged in autonomic response patterns. Notably, for participants with WS, increased anxiety was uniquely associated with diminished arousal to angry faces and voices. In contrast, for the TD group, no associations emerged between anxiety and physiological responsivity to social-emotional stimuli. The anxiety associated with WS appears to be intimately related to reduced autonomic arousal to angry social stimuli, which may also be linked to the characteristic social disinhibition.