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

October 24, 2012 updated by: University of Tromso
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.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

60

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Locations

  • Norway
    • Troms
      • Tromso, Troms, Norway, 9037
        • Department of Psychology, University of Tromso

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

7 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

For ASD group:

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders

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

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Normal controls
Normal children and youths
Behavioral: Pictures
The participants will be exposed to pictures of faces and non-facial stimuli presented on a PC screen.
Behavioral: Startle eliciting noise
Startle will be elicited by 95 dB noise, presented at different times after picture onset.
Experimental: ASD
Children and youths diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Behavioral: Pictures
The participants will be exposed to pictures of faces and non-facial stimuli presented on a PC screen.
Behavioral: Startle eliciting noise
Startle will be elicited by 95 dB noise, presented at different times after picture onset.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The eyeblink of the Startle reflex is measured.
Time Frame: The startle reflex will be measured in relation to picture presentations during the experiment (e.g. day 1).
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).

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Tromso

Collaborators

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Health

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.

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

March 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

January 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 2, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 24, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

March 25, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 25, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 24, 2012

Last Verified

October 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2010/238

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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