Understanding the Mechanisms of Autism : an MRI and Social Cognition Study — ECLAT  

Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title: Understanding the Mechanisms of Autism : an MRI and Social Cognition Study

Status Not yet recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

The main goal of this study is to investigate anatomo-functional brain abnormalities associated with autism spectrum disorders using a multimodal brain imaging approach, as well as its links to social cognition difficulties measured using eye-tracking

Clinical Trial Description

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders whose first manifestations appear early in childhood. Even if ASDs present a wide heterogeneity in clinical manifestations, abnormalities in social behavior, characterized in particular by a lack of preference for social information, remain the core of difficulties characteristic of autism.

Brain imaging investigations have revealed anatomo-functional abnormalities in autism, particularly in social brain regions. In parallel, eye-tracking studies have provided objective measures of social perception abnormalities in autism. These results illustrate the relevance of these research strategies in the context of ASD. Acquiring objective data on social behavior and linking them with brain imaging data opens up new avenues for research into the evolution of social skills during child development, and the brain changes underlying this process.

In this context, the main hypothesis of this study is that the investigation of the neural bases of autism spectrum disorders, using an approach combining multimodal brain imaging and the investigation of social behavior using eye-tracking, would make it possible not only to better describe abnormalities, but also to identify individual patterns at brain and behavioral level. This could help to better characterize ASDs with and without genetic abnormalities, an area which to date has received very little investigation. In addition, the objective measurements obtained with this approach would also enable the proposal of biomarkers, which would contribute not only to better monitoring of the disorder's evolution, but also to the evaluation of the effectiveness of new therapeutic interventions ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Autistic Disorder

• NCT number: NCT06334588
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
• Contact: Nathalie BODDAERT, MD, PhD
• Phone: +33 1.71.39.65.30
• Email: nathalie.boddaert@aphp.fr
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 2024
• Completion date: April 2031