ウイリアムズ症候群児における視空間情報処理過程の特徴

Characteristics of visuospatial information process in children with Williams syndrome

要旨：ウイリアムズ症候群児6名に対し，K-ABC心理・教育アセスメントバッテリー(以下，K-ABC)と図形位置判別課題を実施し，情報処理過程の特徴の抽出，視空間情報の判別と記憶機能との関連を検討した．その結果，K-ABC「位置さがし」における個人内差に低さが認められ，図形位置判別課題では斜めの図形配置を誤る者が6名中3名存在した．そのため，ウイリアムズ症候群では視空間情報の一時的な記憶，モデルの再生における情報処理過程の問題とともに，傾きを伴う視空間情報の判別に困難性を示しやすい者も存在していると考えられた．

　Williams syndrome (WS) is generally associated with a 1-2Mb deletion of chromosome band 7q11. 23 that includes the genes for elastin, which is responsible for congenital heart disease, and mental retardation. Cognitive deficits have been reported in WS including those of dissociation between language, a strong ability for face processing and weakness in spatial cognition. We studied the Japanese Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and figure arrangement discrimination task in 6 children with WS. In 7 kinds of subtests in K-ABC, intraindividual differences in those subtests were calculated. Spatial memory of simultaneous processing subtest was low. The figure arrangement discrimination task, cognition of slanting figure arrangement was low in 3 children. These results indicated that performance on visuospatial short-term memory and recall of pattern visuospatial was low.