Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism Spectrum Disorders

April 16, 2024 updated by: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Background:

  • Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disorders that affect communication, social interaction, and behavior. Relatively little is known about the relationship between genetics and behavior among these individuals and their close relatives. Researchers are interested in using interviews and rating scales to better understand these issues, as well as collecting brain scan data and genetic samples for testing and comparison.
  • By comparing test results and genetic samples from healthy volunteers, people with ASD, and parents (or caregivers or legal guardians) of the first two groups, researchers hope to better understand the neuroscience of ASD.

Objectives:

  • To learn more about the brain in healthy people and in people with autism spectrum disorders.
  • To study genes that might be involved in autism spectrum disorders by collecting DNA samples from participants.

Eligibility:

The following groups of participants will be eligible for the study:

  • Individuals between 5 and 89 years of age who have autism spectrum disorders.
  • Healthy volunteers between 5 and 89 years of age.
  • Cognitively impaired children between 5 and 17 years of age.
  • Parents/caregivers/legal guardians of individuals in the above three groups.

Design:

  • Participants will visit the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center for research tests, which will be administered over multiple visits. Researchers will determine the specific tests to be administered based on the medical history of the study participant.
  • Researchers will study the brain through interviews, tests of thinking and memory (neuropsychological tests), brain imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG).
  • The study will also collect blood or saliva to obtain a DNA sample.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

Objective: The primary objective of the proposed studies is to utilize neuroimaging (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging [fMRI], structural MRI [sMRI], Magnetoencephalography [MEG]) and neuropsychological tools (eye-tracking, cognitive experiments, clinical neuropsychological measures, questionnaires, etc.) to identify cognitive idiosyncrasies (e.g., social-cognitive deficits, visual perceptual assets, and savant skills) characteristic of individuals on the autism spectrum and their neural underpinnings across childhood and adulthood.

Study Population: Children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), controls (i.e., typically developing children, adolescents, and adults and those with mild to moderate mental retardation), as well as caregivers/legal guardians/parents of these individuals.

Design: Descriptive/Characterization/Observational studies using primarily neuropsychological and neuroimaging methodologies.

Outcome Measures: Behavioral (reaction time, accuracy, eye movements, etc.) and neuroimaging (brain morphometry, BOLD, electrophysiology, etc.).

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

678

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Maryland
      • Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892
        • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

5 years to 89 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), controls (i.e., typically developing children, adolescents, and adults and children with mild to moderate intellectual disability), as well as caregivers/legal guardians/parents of these individuals.

Description

  • INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Subjects will include:

  1. males and females.
  2. 5-89 years of age.
  3. A minimum IQ of 70

Subjects in the ASD group will:

  1. meet DSM-IV criteria for one of the pervasive developmental disorders (i.e., autistic disorder, Asperger disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified).
  2. meet or pass the autism cut-off score for social symptoms on the ADI and/or the ASD cut-off score from social+communication symptoms on the ADOS.
  3. be able to provide their own consent (for adults).

For inclusion in the facial recognition substudy, subjects must be:

  1. ages 18 to 35
  2. in good health
  3. with bad memory of faces

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

All subjects, except for savants, also will be excluded if they have:

  1. a history of neurological insult/injury.
  2. substantial prenatal drug exposure known to affect later brain and behavior (e.g., cocaine, alcohol).
  3. severely premature birth or birth trauma.
  4. severe medical disorder (e.g., neurofibromatosis, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, uncontrollable seizure disorder).

  5. a known genetic disorder (e.g., Fragile X or Down syndrome) that would be expected to significantly impact findings from cognitive testing and/or neuroimaging.

    Furthermore, subjects will be excluded from MRI/MEG studies, if they have:

  6. any exclusion from MRI scanning including: the presence of metal in their body, having a pacemaker, and/or females who are pregnant.

Healthy volunteers, except for parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and parents of healthy volunteers, will also be excluded if they have:

1. a current or past history of axis I psychiatric conditions or any current usage of psychiatric medication.

Savants have less restrictive exclusionary criteria because: 1) they are a very rare group, thus we don t want to limit recruitment further and 2) we can examine common and unique cognitive mechanisms across savants, a question of keen interest, regardless of co-morbidities. Those with tumors or other neuroimaging-relevant contraindications will be excluded from fMRI/MEG procedures.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Group 1
Healthy Volunteers
Group 2
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Group 3
Parents of Healthy Volunteers, or Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cognitive and neurological phenotypes in ASD and control participants
Time Frame: Ongoing
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging
Ongoing

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Alex Martin, Ph.D., National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 21, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 11, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 11, 2009

First Posted (Estimated)

December 14, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 17, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 16, 2024

Last Verified

December 28, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 100027
  • 10-M-0027

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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