Trisomie 21; syndrome de Williams; hippocampus; Williams syndrome; Down syndrome; mémoire spatiale; navigation
Jabès Adeline, Klencklen Giuliana, Ruggeri Paolo, Antonietti Jean-Philippe, Banta Lavenex Pamela, Lavenex Pierre (2021), Age-Related Differences in Resting-State EEG and Allocentric Spatial Working Memory Performance, in
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 13, 1-19.
Jabès Adeline, Klencklen Giuliana, Ruggeri Paolo, Michel Christoph M., Banta Lavenex Pamela, Lavenex Pierre (2021), Resting‐State EEG Microstates Parallel Age‐Related Differences in Allocentric Spatial Working Memory Performance, in
Brain Topography, 34(4), 442-460.
Banta Lavenex Pamela, Lavenex Pierre (2021), A Critical Review of Spatial Abilities in Down and Williams Syndromes: Not All Space Is Created Equal, in
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 1-17.
Banta Lavenex Pamela, Ribordy LambertFarfalla, BostelmannMathilde, LavenexPierre (2021), Le développement de la mémoire spatiale chez l'enfant entre 2 et 9 ans, in
Enfance, 1, 19-35.
Bostelmann Mathilde, Ruggeri Paolo, Rita Circelli Antonella, Costanzo Floriana, Menghini Deny, Vicari Stefano, Lavenex Pierre, Banta Lavenex Pamela (2020), Path Integration and Cognitive Mapping Capacities in Down and Williams Syndromes, in
Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1-22.
Bostelmann Mathilde, Lavenex Pierre, Banta Lavenex Pamela (2020), Children five-to-nine years old can use path integration to build a cognitive map without vision, in
Cognitive Psychology, 121, 101307-101307.
Bostelmann Mathilde, Bochud-FragnièreEmilie, LavenexPierre, Banta LavenexPamela (2019), Les systèmes de mémoire spatiale et le syndrome de Williams, in
Approche Neuropsychologique des Apprentissages chez l'Enfant, 160, 358-365.
Bostelmann Mathilde, Costanzo Floriana, Martorana Lorelay, Menghini Deny, Vicari Stefano, Banta Lavenex Pamela, Lavenex Pierre (2018), Low-Resolution Place and Response Learning Capacities in Down Syndrome, in
Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1-17.
Bostelmann Mathilde, Fragnière Emilie, Costanzo Floriana, Di Vara Silvia, Menghini Deny, Vicari Stefano, Lavenex Pierre, Banta Lavenex Pamela (2017), Dissociation of spatial memory systems in Williams syndrome, in
Hippocampus, 27(11), 1192-1203.
Ribordy Lambert F., Lavenex P., Banta Lavenex P. (2017), The “when” and the “where” of single-trial allocentric spatial memory performance in young children: Insights into the development of episodic memory, in
Developmental Psychobiology, 59(2), 185-196.
Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS) are neurodevelopmental disorders with distinct genetic origins. Persons with these syndromes have cognitive deficits generically described as mild to moderate intellectual disability. However, over the last 20 years a concerted effort to compare the intellectual abilities of persons with DS and WS has led to the understanding that distinct etiologies yield distinct cognitive profiles. Nonetheless, the spatial abilities of these two populations have not yet been fully defined. Whereas a number of studies have investigated various aspects of spatial cognition, especially visuospatial processing, in DS and WS individuals, there has been no experiment appropriately designed to specifically assess basic real-world allocentric spatial capacities, which normally depend on the proper function of the hippocampus.The reasons for characterizing allocentric spatial memory processes in DS and WS are manifold: allocentric spatial memories are critical for the construction of cognitive maps, which are essential for developing independence and autonomy in individuals with intellectual disability; allocentric spatial memories are a fundamental component of episodic memory, and thus may serve as a proxy for assessing episodic memory function, especially in individuals with impaired language function; and finally, although allocentric spatial memory is one of the hallmark cognitive processes studied in mouse models of WS and DS, its impairment in humans with WS and DS has not been unequivocally demonstrated.Here, we propose to characterize the fundamental egocentric and allocentric spatial capacities of individuals with Down syndrome (DS), individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), and mental age-matched typically-developing (TD) children in controlled real-world environments.In Specific Aim 1, we will test the influence of spatial resolution on the allocentric and egocentric spatial memory abilities of DS, WS and TD individuals. Following our recent findings (1), we predict that about 50% of DS individuals will exhibit basic allocentric spatial capacities, which allow them to define locations with a low spatial resolution based on their topological relations to distal environmental cues, whereas 50% will not. We also predict that the performance of most DS individuals will be impaired on tasks requiring high spatial resolution capacities. In contrast, since WS individuals have severe visuospatial deficits, we predict that they will be impaired on all allocentric tasks integrating visual information, irrespective of spatial resolution. Individuals with DS and WS will perform relatively better in egocentric spatial tasks.In Specific Aim 2, we will test the ability of DS, WS and TD individuals to use self-generated motion information to build egocentric and allocentric representations of space in absence of vision. We hypothesize that, in absence of visual information, WS individuals will be able to form both egocentric and allocentric representations of space. Preserved ability to use self-generated motion information to represent space in an allocentric manner in WS will indicate that the impairments observed in other spatial tasks are most likely due to the reliance on corrupted dorsal visual stream input, and not the result of abnormal hippocampal processing. We predict that DS individuals will perform relatively well in tasks requiring them to use self-generated motion information to encode space in an egocentric manner. In contrast, we predict that whereas the DS individuals who are capable of forming an allocentric representation with vision in Experiment 1 will be able to build an allocentric spatial representation in absence of visual information, DS individuals who cannot create an allocentric representation with vision will be incapable of creating an allocentric representation in absence of visual information, thus suggesting specific hippocampal impairment.In Specific Aim 3, we will test DS and WS individuals with a number of neuropsychological exams that will allow us to identify measures that may correlate with our egocentric and allocentric spatial memory tasks, thus identifying clinical tasks for predicting allocentric processing deficits and, accordingly, hippocampal impairments.