Emotional Proactive Brain Study in Adults With Autism Spectrum Condition (PREDEMAUT)

This project aims:

• to study behavioral and cerebral activity specificity (latency and amplitude of evoked potentials, time frequency maps and cerebral connectivity) in predictive process (top-down regulation) during visual recognition of static and dynamic stimuli in adults participants with autism spectrum conditions compared to typically developed participants.
• to study the relation between predictive process and autonomous response (heart activity and electrodermal activity)
• to explore potential sex differences between autistic males and females

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: EEG

Detailed Description

Once eligibility criteria would have been verified, information on the study will be given and non opposition of the participant will be collected.Then, the participant will be comfortably installed in order to pass the Landolt C task (visual acuity task) on a computer. If his vision is normal, electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrodermal activity (EDA) of participants, will be recorded during visual processing and recognition tasks. Stimuli will include emotional and non emotional pictures and films, filtered in coarse-to-fine versus fine-to-coarse sequences in order to stimulate or not predictive process described by Bar (2007).

The participant will also have to complete an abbreviated version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, IVth edition (Wechsler, 2003), and the Autism Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) if he never did it before. The aim is to pair as much as possible group by IQ and to verify that control participants don't present autistic traits above the Autism Spectrum Quotient cutoff. Groups will also be paired by age and education level.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 94

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Grenoble, France, 38043
    • Chu Grenoble Alpes

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 50 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adults autistic males and females without intellectual disability compared to a control group

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• affiliation to the french social protection care
• information and non opposition of the participant
• information and non opposition of tutor/curator if the case presented
• normal or corrected to normal vision
• capacity to understand and apply instruction required by the task
• no participation in another research
• for autistic person: formal diagnosis of autism spectrum condition (autism/asperger/PDD-NS) according to CIM-10/DSM-IV/DSM-5 criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

• adults with no ability to express their consent
• adults on judiciary protection
• perceptive/motor/neurological/psychiatric issue
• major health issue (cardiac, metabolic ...)
• alcohol or drug consumption

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC); Adults males and females with a formal autism diagnosis, without intellectual disability	Other: EEG; EEG, ECG and EDR record during a behavioral task; Other Names: ECG; EDR
Typically developped (TD); Adults males and females without any neurodevelopemental issue (or health issue which could impaired task performances)	Other: EEG; EEG, ECG and EDR record during a behavioral task; Other Names: ECG; EDR

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Differences between autistic and typically developed participants in evoked potentials related to prediction mechanisms during visual processing	- differences in evoked potentials (latency and amplitude) Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated how predictive mechanism during visual perception are affected in autism regarding cerebral activity.	55 minutes recording
Differences between autistic and typically developed participants in behavioral responses related to prediction mechanisms during visual processing	- differences in behavioral responses (reaction time and correct response rate) Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated how predictive mechanism during visual perception are affected in autism regarding behavioral response.	55 minutes (same recording as before)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Differences between groups in oscillatory activity	-differences in time-frequency maps. Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated how predictive mechanism during visual perception are affected in autism regarding cerebral activity.	55 minutes (same record as before)
Difference between groups in cerebral connectivity	- differences in Dynamic Causal Modeling Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated how predictive mechanism during visual perception are affected in autism regarding cerebral activity.	55 minutes (same record as before)
Differences between groups in autonomous activity	ECG activity (HRV analysis); electrodermal activity (EDA) Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated how predictive mechanism during visual perception are affected in autism regarding autonomous activity.	55 minutes (same record as before)
Sex differences	- sex differences analysis Changes will be assessed between coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse sequencies. It will be used to investigated the existence of sex differences in autism regarding predictive process during visual perception.	55 minutes (same record as before)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Grenoble
• Collaborators: Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Laurent Vercueil, Doctor, University Hospital, Grenoble

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Peyrin C, Michel CM, Schwartz S, Thut G, Seghier M, Landis T, Marendaz C, Vuilleumier P. The neural substrates and timing of top-down processes during coarse-to-fine categorization of visual scenes: a combined fMRI and ERP study. J Cogn Neurosci. 2010 Dec;22(12):2768-80. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21424.
• Thayer JF, Ahs F, Fredrikson M, Sollers JJ 3rd, Wager TD. A meta-analysis of heart rate variability and neuroimaging studies: implications for heart rate variability as a marker of stress and health. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012 Feb;36(2):747-56. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.11.009. Epub 2011 Dec 8.
• Bar M. The proactive brain: using analogies and associations to generate predictions. Trends Cogn Sci. 2007 Jul;11(7):280-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2007.05.005. Epub 2007 Jun 4. Erratum In: Trends Cogn Sci. 2007 Sep;11(9):372.
• Caplette L, Wicker B, Gosselin F. Atypical Time Course of Object Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Sci Rep. 2016 Oct 18;6:35494. doi: 10.1038/srep35494.
• Gomot M, Wicker B. A challenging, unpredictable world for people with autism spectrum disorder. Int J Psychophysiol. 2012 Feb;83(2):240-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.09.017. Epub 2011 Oct 1.
• Quintana DS, Guastella AJ, Outhred T, Hickie IB, Kemp AH. Heart rate variability is associated with emotion recognition: direct evidence for a relationship between the autonomic nervous system and social cognition. Int J Psychophysiol. 2012 Nov;86(2):168-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.08.012. Epub 2012 Aug 30.
• Sinha P, Kjelgaard MM, Gandhi TK, Tsourides K, Cardinaux AL, Pantazis D, Diamond SP, Held RM. Autism as a disorder of prediction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Oct 21;111(42):15220-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1416797111. Epub 2014 Oct 6.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 17, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 12, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): July 12, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 23, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 23, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): August 28, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 9, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: heart rate variability; electroencephalography; visual perception; autonomous nervous system; predictive coding; Autism Spectrum Condition; electrodermal reactivity
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: 38RC19.131; 2019-A01145-52 (Other Identifier: ID RCB)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No