The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Visual Recognition Disabilities in Williams syndrome -Why can they trace but cannot copy?-
Language	J
AuthorList	Chiyoko Nagai¹⁾, Makoto Iwata¹⁾, Rumiko Matsuoka²⁾, Motoichiro Kato³⁾
Affiliation	1) Department of Neurology, Neurological Institute, Tokyo Women's Medical University 2) Department of Pediatric Cardiology, The Heart Institute of Japan, Tokyo Women's Medical University 3) Department of Neuropsychiatry, Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 17 (1), 36-44, 2001
Received	Jun 12, 2000
Accepted	Jul 17, 2000
Abstract	We examined the visual recognition abilities in patients with Williams syndrome. Four patients aged from 8 to 28 years were investigated with visuoperceptual tasks and visuomotor tasks. In visuoperceptual tasks, they couldn't either judge the line orientation or understand the constancy of geometrical figures, though they were good at the basic visual perceptive function. In visuomotor (drawing) tasks, they couldn't copy any geometrical figure at all, but they could trace all the figures very well. The characteristic error in copying was the misformation of the angles. Their drawing from their own visual images (or from long term memory store) was better than copying. The results show that Williams syndrome patients have visuoperceptual deficits which cause poor drawing ability in that syndrome.
Keywords	Williams syndrome, visual recognition disability, tracing, copying