Background People with Williams syndrome (WS) face challenges in various areas of cognitive processing, including attention. Previous studies suggest that these challenges are particularly pronounced when disengagement of attention from a previously attended stimulus is required, as compared to shifting attention without the need to disengage. Difficulties with attention could in turn be implicated in several of the behavioral characteristics of WS. Here, disengagement and shifting of visual attention, together with pupil dilation, were independently assessed in one of the largest eye-tracking studies of WS to date.

Methods We investigated shifting, disengagement, and the effects of auditory alerting cues on pupil dilation in WS individuals (n = 45, age range = 9–58 years), non-WS individuals with intellectual disability (ID) (n = 36, age range = 6–59 years), and typically developed (TD) infants (n = 32, age range = 6–7 months), children and adults (n = 31, age range = 9–60 years), using a modified gap-overlap task. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effect models (LMMs).

Results Individuals with WS were less likely to shift their attention to upcoming targets than TD individuals (all ages), but more likely than the ID group to do so. When they did shift attention, participants with WS and ID were slower to initiate a gaze shift than TD participants regardless of whether disengagement was needed. In the WS group, failure to shift attention was strongly predicted by higher arousal (pupil dilation), which was induced by auditory alerting cues.

Conclusions Contrasting with previous theories of attention in WS, we found no evidence for a specific challenge in disengaging attention. Instead, our results point to a more general challenge in shifting attention. Reduced attention shifting in WS may be partly explained by atypical arousal regulation. These results contribute to our understanding of the WS phenotype.

Past results suggest that fear extinction and the return of extinguished fear are compromised in adolescents. However, findings have been inconclusive as there is a lack of fear extinction and extinction retention studies including children, adolescents and adults. In the present study, 36 children (6–9 years), 40 adolescents (13–17 years) and 44 adults (30–40 years), underwent a two-day fear conditioning task. Habituation, acquisition, and extinction were performed on the first day and an extinction retention test > 24 h later. Skin conductance responses were recorded during all phases of fear conditioning and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted during the fear retention test. All groups acquired and extinguished fear as measured with SCR, with no group differences in SCR during extinction retention. The groups had largely similar neural fear responses during the retention test, apart from adolescents displaying stronger amygdala fear response than children, with no differences between adolescents and adults. The findings do not support an adolescent extinction dip, and there was only marginal evidence of progressive changes in fear conditioning across development. In contrast to findings in rodents, fear conditioning in humans may elicit similar physiological responses and recruit similar neural networks from childhood to adulthood.

Background: Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are disproportionately exposed to several risk factors for suicidality. However, no meta-analysis has yet quantified the relative risk of suicide and self-harm, including suicide attempts, within this population. The aim of this project was to bring together and synthesise the research on suicidality among individuals with ID.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out. Medline, Embase, Web of Science and PsycInfo were searched from inception through 4 August 2025. Observational studies with a quantitative design, evaluating the relative risk of suicide or self-harm, including suicide attempts, in individuals with and without ID, were included. Risk of bias was assessed using a shortened version of the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies–of Exposure (ROBINS-E) checklist. A random effects model was used to synthesise the results.

Results: Eleven primary studies were included in the review (n = 241 438). The level of ID severity was only presented in two articles. Compared to the general population, the pooled relative risk for death by suicide was 0.54 (95% CI 0.33 to 0.89, k = 6, I² = 77%) and the relative risk for self-harm was 3.16, (95% CI 2.3 to 4.35, k = 6, I² = 89%).

Conclusion: The findings suggest that individuals with ID have an elevated risk of self-harm but a lower risk of dying by suicide compared to the general population. However, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the limited number of primary studies and substantial between-study heterogeneity. Further, separate analyses of mild versus moderate-to-profound ID are warranted.

Pupillary contagion occurs when one’s pupil size unconsciously adapts to the pupil size of an observed individual and is presumed to reflect the transfer of arousal. Importantly, when estimating pupil contagion, low level stimuli properties need to be controlled for, to ensure that observations of pupillary changes are due to internal change in arousal rather than the external differences between stimuli. Here, naturalistic images of children’s faces depicting either small or large pupils were presented to a group of children and adolescents with a wide range of autistic traits, a third of whom had been diagnosed with autism. We examined the extent to which pupillary contagion reflects autonomic nervous system reaction through pupil size change, heart rate and skin conductance response. Our second aim was to determine the association between arousal reaction to stimuli and degree of autistic traits. Results show that pupil contagion and concomitant heart rate change, but not skin conductance change, was evident when gaze was restricted to the eye region of face stimuli. A positive association was also observed between pupillary contagion and autistic traits when participants’ gaze was constrained to the eye region. Findings add to a broader understanding of the mechanisms underlying pupillary contagion and its association with autism.

Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with atypical social communication and cognition reminiscent of the behaviours observed in autism. Nonetheless, WS also differs significantly from autism, such as regarding social motivation, which is typically enhanced in WS and reduced in autism. This study sought to examine the conditions’ transdiagnostic similarities and differences for autistic symptoms and social functioning, and their developmental trajectories, by comparing individuals with WS (n = 24) and those diagnosed with idiopathic autism (n = 24) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 24), aged 9 to 53 years, on measures of autism, social functioning, IQ and cooccurring psychiatric conditions. Although only 12.5% in the WS group met the criteria for an autism diagnosis, a majority exhibited distinct difficulties within social communication, social cognition, repetitive behaviours, and atypical sensory reactivity resembling autism. Conversely, elevated social motivation and a high number of social initiatives accompany these characteristics. No group differences in the developmental trajectories of autism symptoms were found. Our results demonstrate that autistic behaviours are more frequent in individuals with WS, than in individuals with idiopathic ADHD, and emphasize the need for clinical management of these behaviours.

Boken presenterar konkreta strategier som kan användas i klassrummet för att främja lärande och delaktighet hos elever med adhd och autism.

I den första delen, Psykologiska perspektiv, beskrivs diagnoskriterier, utredningsprocessen, hur adhd och autism uttrycks i vardagen samt en rad sociala och kognitiva förklaringsmodeller som är relaterade till tillstånden.

Den andra delen, Pedagogiska perspektiv, knyter de psykologiska teorierna till olika vardagssituationer i skolan och redogör för olika strategier för stöd, såsom ledarskap i klassrummet, struktur i tid och rum, stöd för motivation, lärande och kamratrelationer. Boken riktar sig till specialpedagoger, speciallärare, lärare och skolpsykologer verksamma i skolan.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) follows a variable course across childhood. Disrupted arousal has been hypothesized to underlie core symptoms as well as comorbid internalizing and externalizing conditions. The current study examined eye-movement and pupil-dilation metrics indexing arousal as longitudinal predictors of ADHD, externalizing, and internalizing symptoms over a 2-year period. Participants aged 8–13 years (N = 54, 30% with a diagnosis of ADHD) completed a modified version of the gap-overlap task including arousal-inducing auditory warning signals. Parents rated symptoms at the time of testing and at 2 years follow-up. Phasic alerting (reaction-time reduction after alerting cues) is an index of arousal. Here, larger phasic alerting effects predicted higher ADHD-symptom levels 2 years later. Blunted pupil-dilation responses predicted externalizing symptoms at T2, controlling for ADHD and externalizing at T1. Our results support the theory that ADHD is associated with altered arousal. Blunted arousal reactivity may be a longitudinal risk factor for externalizing problems in children with ADHD symptoms.

Probabilistic games such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Balloon game have been widely used in psychology and neuroscience for clinical research and assessment. We introduce Markov games, an infinite family of games containing the IGT and the Balloon game as special cases. The purpose is to provide a uniform framework for testing, training, and modeling probabilistic reasoning in individuals and diagnosticgroups. Markovgamescan beplayedondigitalplatformsandakeybenefit is that the level of difficulty can be adapted dynamically to the player’s performance. Second, we present the results of an initial study with 15 adults playing a selection of Markov games. Third, we consider several computational models based on reinforcement learning and compare their performance to that of the 15 adults.

Background: Children with brain tumors are at high risk of neurocognitive decline after radiotherapy (RT). However, there is a lack of studies on how RT doses to organs at risk (OARs) impacts neurocognition. The aim of this study was to examine dose-risk relationships for mean RT dose to different brain structures important for neurocognitive networks. We explored previously established OARs and potentially new OARs. Methods: A sample of 44 pediatric brain tumor survivors who had received proton and/or photon RT were included. Correlations between mean RT doses to OARs and IQ were analyzed. Previously established OARs were cochleae, optic chiasm, optic nerve, pituitary gland, hypothalamus, hippocampus and pons. Potential new OARs for RT-induced neurocognitive decline were cerebellum, vermis and thalamus. Results: Mean RT dose to different OARs correlated with several IQ subtests. Higher mean RT dose to cochleae, optic nerve, cerebellum, vermis and pons was correlated with lower performance on particularly full-scale IQ (FIQ), Perceptual Reasoning (PRI), Working Memory (WMI) and Processing Speed Index (PSI). Higher mean RT dose to hippocampus correlated with lower performance on processing speed and working memory. For those receiving whole brain RT (WBRT), higher mean RT dose to the pituitary gland correlated with lower performance on working memory. Conclusion: A high dose-risk correlation was found between IQ subtests and mean RT dose in established and potential new OARs. Thus, in the lack of validated dose constraints for vulnerable brain structures, a parsimonious approach in RT planning should be considered to preserve neurocognitive networks.

Typically developing humans automatically synchronize their arousal levels, resulting in pupillary contagion, or spontaneous adaptation of pupil size to that of others. This phenomenon emerges in infancy and is believed to facilitate social interaction. Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic condition characterized by a hyper-social personality and social interaction challenges. Pupillary contagion was examined in individuals with WS (n = 44), age-parallel-matched typically developing children and adults (n = 65), and infants (n = 79). Bayesian statistics were used. As a group, people with WS did not show pupillary contagion (Bayes factors supporting the null: 25–50) whereas control groups did. This suggests a very early emerging atypical developmental trajectory. In WS, higher pupillary contagion was associated with lower autistic symptoms of social communication. Diminished synchronization of arousal may explain why individuals with WS have social challenges, whereas synchronization of arousal is not a necessary correlate of high social motivation.