Friendly faces and unusual minds

Working with a rare set of individuals who have Williams-Beuren syndrome but still show normal intelligence, scientists are trying to tease out what happensin this neurodevelopmental disorder, and shed light on the brain's normal function. This disorder is caused by the deletion of a segment of one copy of chromosome 7, including the elastin gene. Researchers have drawn links between the genes absent in Williams-Beuren syndrome, structural and functional abnormalities in certain brain regions and cognitive defects that are the hallmarks ofthe disorder.