Spatial exploration and navigation in Down syndrome and Williams syndrome

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Spatial Navigation

Background:

• Limited understanding of spatial exploration and navigation in individuals with intellectual disability (ID).
• Need to investigate cross-syndrome differences and similarities in navigation abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare spatial navigation and exploration behaviors in individuals with Down syndrome (DS), Williams syndrome (WS), and typically developing (TD) children.
• To identify distinct behavioral profiles in spatial navigation using a transdiagnostic approach.

Main Methods:

• Cross-syndrome study involving individuals with DS, WS, and TD children (aged 5-11 years).
• Participants explored virtual environments with two distinct goals: environmental learning (Experiment 1) and target location (Experiment 2).
• Latent Profile Analysis used to identify transdiagnostic behavioral profiles.

Main Results:

• In environmental learning, DS and WS groups performed similarly, comparable to TD children with similar non-verbal abilities.
• In target location tasks, the DS group showed weaker performance than the WS group and TD children.
• Exploration patterns differed: DS showed weak, static exploration; WS showed atypical exploration with increased revisits.
• Latent Profile Analysis revealed five profiles; only the most extreme (poor navigators) was specific to DS and WS, with other profiles showing mixed DS and WS representation.

Conclusions:

• Spatial navigation abilities vary significantly among individuals with intellectual disability.
• Task demands (e.g., target location vs. general exploration) reveal differences between DS and WS.
• A transdiagnostic, data-driven approach is valuable for understanding heterogeneity in ID and identifying navigation profiles.