Patterns of spatial functioning in Turner's syndrome

This paper presents results from a study of task performance on a variety of spatial tasks in 9-11 year-old children with Turner's Syndrome (T.S.), divided into those with genotype 45XO and those with Mixed genotypes, including isochromosomes of X and mosaicism. There was a significant overall effect of group reflecting impaired spatial cognition in T.S. with greater decrement in the 45XO group. Further investigation of the significant group by task interaction indicated that the group effects appeared on a visuo-perceptual task and on three visuo-constructional tasks but that there were no specific deficits in the T.S. groups on visuo-spatial or tactile-spatial tasks. In T.S., visuo-perceptual and visuo-constructive sub-systems of spatial skill may be more vulnerable than other components of spatial cognition, to the neuro-biological influences which contribute to the disorder. Such dissociation supports theories of modularity in the development of spatial skill. The spatial tasks which create difficulty overlap only partially with those for which there are sex differences amongst normal children and do not represent a simple exaggeration of normal male-female differences.