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What can Neuropsychology Teach Us About Intellectual Disability?: Searching for Commonalities in the Memory and Executive Function Profiles Associated With Down, Williams, and Fragile X Syndromes
Book chapter   Peer reviewed

What can Neuropsychology Teach Us About Intellectual Disability?: Searching for Commonalities in the Memory and Executive Function Profiles Associated With Down, Williams, and Fragile X Syndromes

N. Raitano Lee, M. Maiman and M. Godfrey
International review of research in developmental disabilities, pp 1-40
01 Jan 2016

Abstract

Education & Educational Research Education, Special Psychology Psychology, Multidisciplinary Social Sciences
In the current chapter, we begin to answer the question of what neuropsychology can teach us about intellectual disability (ID) by closely examining similarities and differences in memory and executive function skills in youth with three genetic syndromes associated with ID - Down (DS), Williams (WS), and Fragile X (FXS) syndromes. In particular, we provide a detailed description of the research literature on short-term, long-term, and working memory as well as inhibition, and cognitive flexibility/shifting in these three groups. In our review, we identify cognitive domains that have the most consistent evidence for impairment (i.e., performance below mental age expectations) across the groups, in an effort to begin to shed light on key cognitive deficits that may underlie ID regardless of etiology. Our review of the literature revealed evidence for impairments in all of the cognitive domains reviewed in at least two of the three ID groups. However, somewhat more consistent support for impairments across groups was found for studies of long-term and working memory. Thus, in the chapter's discussion, we conceptualize long-term and working memory impairments in relation to the neuroanatomical phenotypes associated with these syndromes in an attempt to begin to bridge relations between brain and cognition in these groups, and thus, advance our understanding of the neuropsychology of ID. We conclude the chapter by identifying limitations in the existing literature and directions for future research.

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Web of Science research areas
Education, Special
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
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