Sociability Traced to Particular Region of Brain by Stanford Scientists - MarketWatch

Sociability Traced to Particular Region of Brain by Stanford Scientists - MarketWatch:

"STANFORD, Calif., Jan 27, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- People with a genetic condition called Williams syndrome are famously gregarious. Scientists, looking carefully at brain function in individuals with Williams syndrome, think they may know why this is so. The researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine showed that parts of a particular brain region known as the amygdala react more powerfully in Williams syndrome patients than in developmentally normal subjects--or in subjects with delays in development not caused by Williams syndrome--when exposed to facial expressions conveying positive emotions.
The study will be published Jan. 28 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Biopsychologist Brian Haas, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford, shares first authorship of the study, with Debra Mills, PhD, of Bangor University in Gwynned, Wales. Haas conducts research in the laboratory of Allan Reiss, MD, the Howard C. Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, who is the paper's senior author. The work is part of an ongoing multicenter collaboration."