Linking Genes to Cognition: The Case of Fragile X Syndrome

© Oxford University Press, Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. This chapter draws together the plethora of findings from a decade of research on fragile X syndrome (FXS) in order to demonstrate how disruption to a single gene can impact across multiple levels (brain, cognitive, behavioral levels) and across developmental time. It begins by describing how some of the major advances in genetic, cognitive, and brain technologies have facilitated a decade of exploration of the gene-brain-behavior relationship in developmental disorders. It then illustrates the fruitfulness of this approach using the case of FXS. It focuses on the current knowledge of the fragile X cognitive phenotype and highlights the importance of using a crosssyndrome perspective to further delineate "signature" profiles. The chapter concludes with future research directions that specifically focus on comparisons of cross-syndrome performance over developmental time and the use of the cross-cultural context to delineate the contributions of similar genes within the context of different cultural environments to the developmental outcomes of different disorders.