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Susan Rivera's research highlighted in ScienMag

Her new findings may help develop a marker to identify anxiety in children with fragile X syndrome and other developmental disorders, and open avenues for future treatment options.

Anxiety occurs at high rates in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. Children with co-occurring anxiety tend to fare worse, but it can be hard to identify in infants. A new study led by Professor Susan Rivera found that, unlike typically developing children, infants and children with FXS tend to focus more on angry faces than happy ones. A bias toward threatening emotion is a pattern highly linked with anxiety. 

Read more about the new work by Rivera, former graduate student Jessica Burris and colleagues.