Individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome are impaired at explicit, but not implicit, discrimination of local forms embedded in global structures.

[22q11.2 deletion syndrome]

Individuals with 22 q 11 .2 deletion syndrome (22 q 11 .2 DS ) are impaired at exploring visual information in space ; however , not much is known about visual form discrimination in the syndrome . Thirty -five individuals with 22 q 11 .2 DS and 41 controls completed a form discrimination task with global forms made up of local elements . Affected individuals demonstrated clear impairment in detecting local , but not global , differences . Nevertheless , 22 q 11 .2 DS participants easily discriminated the same local elements when they were displayed in isolation , and further use of a prime demonstrated preserved facilitation of local processing in 22 q 11 .2 DS . These results did not differ by age or IQ . This study illustrates the impact of visuospatial impairments on form discrimination , and suggests how these difficulties may affect visual scanning in 22 q 11 .2 DS .