A study of voice and non-voice processing in Prader-Willi syndrome
Résumé
Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare and complex neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origin. It
manifests itself in endocrine and cognitive problems, including highly pronounced hyperphagia and severe obesity.
In many cases, impaired acquisition of social and communication skills leads to autism spectrum features, and
individuals with this syndrome are occasionally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using specific
scales. Given that communicational skills are largely based on vocal communication, it is important to study human
voice processing in PWS.
We were able to examine a large number of participants with PWS (N = 61) recruited from France’s national
reference center for PWS and other hospitals. We tested their voice and nonvoice recognition abilities, as well as
their ability to distinguish between voices and nonvoices in a free choice task. We applied the hierarchical drift
diffusion model (HDDM) with Bayesian estimation to compare decision-making in participants with PWS and
controls.
We found that PWS participants were impaired on both voice and nonvoice processing, but displayed a
compensatory ability to perceive voices. Participants with uniparental disomy had poorer voice and nonvoice
perception than participants with a deletion on chromosome 15. The HDDM allowed us to demonstrate that
participants with PWS need to accumulate more information in order to make a decision, are slower at decision-
making, and are predisposed to voice perception, albeit to a lesser extent than controls.
The categorization of voices and nonvoices is generally preserved in participants with PWS, though
this may not be the case for the lowest IQ
Domaines
PsychologieOrigine | Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte |
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