A REEXAMINATION OF THE VISUOSPATIAL DEFICIT IN TURNER-SYNDROME - CONTRIBUTIONS OF WORKING-MEMORY

Studies describing deficits in children with Turner Syndrome (TS) typi cally report that visual and spatial processing are impaired relative to verbal processing (Rovet & Netley, 1982). The exact nature of this deficit is not entirely clear, however, because the tasks that have be en used to date (e.g., mental rotation, part-whole and left-right deci sions, etc.) do not distinguish between what Kosslyn (1980) described as the two components of visual processing: locating an object in spac e (where?) and determining the identity of an object (what?). We repor t findings from an experiment designed to examine visual processing an d working memory in children with TS and normal control children. Howe ver, unlike previous examinations of visuospatial processing in TS, th e reported experiments tease apart what and where aspects of the visua l system. Moreover, they examine separately the contributions of both visual and verbal working memory to visuospatial processing. Differenc es between children with TS and normal controls indicate that the core deficit is in visuospatial working memory. Correlations with karyotyp e information from the girls with TS provide some preliminary support for a gene-dosage hypothesis.