ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how eye-tracking techniques have been used to inform our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders. Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts upon an individual's physical, cognitive and behavioural functioning. The unique cognitive and behavioural profile in WS has provided the impetus for a growing body of research on this genetic neurodevelopmental disorder, in the hope that WS offers a new window to organisation and adaptability of the normal brain. Due to certain strengths with language, individuals with WS will often seem more capable than they actually are, and care needs to be taken in experimental design around task instructions and matching procedures. The striking hypersociability seen in WS is often contrasted with the aloofness and social withdrawal typically seen in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Studying social attention is important as looking at faces provides a key source of learning from birth, and is at the heart of some important early socio-developmental milestones.
