Attention and identification of the same and the similar visual stimuli in Rett Syndrome

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a developmental disorder, predominantly affecting girls, which causes Intellectual Disability and neuro-behavioral disability. Individuals with RTT present with apraxia and movement disorders and most of them are unable to speak, walk and use their hands. For these reasons, eye tracker technology is being increasingly used to their assess cognitive processes. The aim of this study was to investigate three cognitive processes in girls with RTT compared with typical developing girls (TD): the ability to attend to visual stimuli, the ability to identify the same stimuli and the ability to identify the similar stimuli. With the help of Eye Tracker technology, three tasks were administered (1. Attention; 2. Identification of the same stimuli; 3. Identification of the similar stimuli) to 21 girls with RTT, compared with TD girls. Results show that girls with RTT performed worse than girls with TD in all conditions. The absence of significant interactions between group and type of task and between groups and contents indicates that the attention behavior in girls with RTT can reflect a general delay in cognitive maturation.