Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Social Stimuli in Children and Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title:

Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Social Stimuli in Children and Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01322984
• Other study ID #: 2010/238
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: March 2, 2011
• Last updated: October 24, 2012
• Start date: March 2011

Study information

• Verified date: October 2012
• Source: University of Tromso
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Norway: Regional Ethics Commitee
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Children and youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been shown to react abnormally to social stimuli, especially to human faces. Children and youth with ASD show less interest in social stimuli, and may even avoid looking at or interact with such stimuli. It has been proposed that social stimuli elicit reactions like fear and stress in individuals with ASD, and this explains the lack of interest and avoidance. The present project investigates this hypothesis.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 60
• Est. primary completion date: January 2013
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 7 Years to 18 Years

Eligibility

For ASD group:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders

Study Design

Allocation: Non-Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Basic Science

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Autistic Disorder
• Child Development Disorders, Pervasive

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Pictures
The participants will be exposed to pictures of faces and non-facial stimuli presented on a PC screen.
• Startle eliciting noise
Startle will be elicited by 95 dB noise, presented at different times after picture onset.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Norway	Department of Psychology, University of Tromso	Tromso	Troms

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Tromso	The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Health

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Norway, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	The eyeblink of the Startle reflex is measured.	The startle reflex is potentiated when participants are influenced by negative emotions. Accordingly, startle will be measured in relation to picture presentation to gauge the emotional effect of the pictures. It is expected that the ASD group will show fear potentiated startle to pictures of human faces.	The startle reflex will be measured in relation to picture presentations during the experiment (e.g. day 1).	No

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