Autism spectrum disorders Mental and Behavioural Disorders Childhood autism
Conditions
Interventions
Current interventions as of 10/10/2022:
Experiment 1: observational trials – non-pathological participants
Speech data will be recorded from 8 non-professional volunteer actors: 2 adult males and fema
Sponsors
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Current inclusion criteria as of 10/10/2022: Experiment 1: 1. Healthy male and female adults and children (age range for children: 9-11 years old, age range for adults: 19-35 years old). 2. Participants will have to have grown up in Mexico to ensure a Mexican way of conveying emotions Experiment 2 and 3: 1. High-functioning autistic volunteers aged 9-11 years old 2. All participants will be diagnosed by a clinician according to DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) or ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – Tenth Edition) criteria 3. Autistic symptomatology will be assessed by the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales – parent report). A T-score greater than 60 (slightly elevated to very elevated scores for autistic behaviors) on Social/Communication, DSM-IV-TR (Text Revision), Peer and Adult Socialization and Social/Emotional Reciprocity domains will be considered as an inclusion criterion. Typically developed (TD) volunteers aged 9-11-year-old will also be included in this study. In the same way that for autistic children, Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (ASRS) will be used, and children with a score inferior to 60 on all scales will be included. Experiment 4: Autistic and TD participants involved in this study will have to meet the same criteria as those described in Experiment 2. However, participants from Experiment 2 will not be included in Experiment 3 to avoid any bias elicited by a former exposition to the synthetic voices under study. Previous inclusion criteria: Experiment 1: 1. Healthy male and female adults and children (age range for children: 9-11 years old, age range for adults: 19-35 years old). 2. Participants will have to have grown up in Mexico in order to ensure a Mexican way of conveying emotions Experiment 2: 1. High-functioning autistic volunteers aged 9-11 years old 2. All participants will be diagnosed by a clinician according to DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) or ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – Tenth Edition) criteria 3. Autistic symptomatology will be assessed by the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales – parent report). A T-score greater than 60 (slightly elevated to very elevated scores for autistic behaviors) on Social/Communication, DSM-IV-TR (Text Revision), Peer and Adult Socialization and Social/Emotional Reciprocity domains will be considered as an inclusion criterion. Typically-developed (TD) volunteers aged 9-11-year-old will also be included in this study. In the same way that for autistic children, Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (ASRS) will be used, and children with a score inferior to 60 in all scales will be included. Experiment 3: Autistic and TD participants involved in this study will have to meet the same criteria than those described in Experiment 2. However, participants from Experiment 2 will not be included in Experiment 3 in order to avoid any bias elicited by a former exposition to the synthetic voices under study.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Current exclusion criteria as of 10/10/2022: Experiment 1: 1. Participants will be excluded if they have been diagnosed with any pathology that affects emotional behavior, hearing, or speech at the time of the study 2. Participants presenting sickness traits affecting voice timbre at the time of the study Experiments 2 and 3: Any TD or autistic participant will be excluded if: 1. She/he is under medication affecting the central or peripheral nervous system 2. She/he has hearing loss or deficits 3. She/he has a history of a developmental pathology and/or any disease affecting behavior and nervous system, apart from ASD for autistic participants Experiment 4: Autistic and TD participants involved in this study will have to meet the same criteria as those described in Experiment 2 Previous exclusion criteria: Experiment 1: 1. Participants will be excluded if they have been diagnosed with any pathology that affects emotional behavior, hearing or speech at the time of the study 2. Participants presenting sickness traits affecting voice timbre at the time of the study Experiment 2: Any TD or autistic participant will be excluded if: 1. She/he is under medication affecting the central or peripheral nervous system 2. She/he has hearing loss or deficits 3. She/he has a history of a developmental pathology and/or any disease affecting behavior and nervous system, apart from ASD for autistic participants Experiment 3: Autistic and TD participants involved in this study will have to meet the same criteria than those described in Experiment 2
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Current primary outcome measures as of 10/10/2022: 1. Autistic symptomatology measured by the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales. Parents of both groups will answer this questionnaire at pre-intervention (1st session) and follow-up sessions (2 and 6 weeks after the end of the intervention). 2. Electroencephalographic correlates and behavioural responses to a task related to emotional prosody processing measured with a 24-channel EEG system (Greentek Gelfree S3, mBrain Train), digitized and amplified at a sampling rate of 500Hz (pass band: 0.1-100Hz). Electrodes placement will be in accordance with the international 10/20 system. Measures will be done at pre-intervention (1st session), mid and end sessions (sessions 7 and 13) and follow-up sessions (2 and 6 weeks after the end of the intervention). The emotional prosody task will be as follows: The task will proceed in a regular office room where the participant will be comfortably seated in a chair in front of a computer screen. Before starting the experiment, the EEG cap will be mounted on the participant’s head and the equipment for electroencephalographic activity recording will be set up. Once the participant is ready and calm, the experimental task will start. Emotional and neutral words uttered by human voices recorded in Experiment 1 and synthesized voices created in Experiment 3 will be randomly displayed to the participant. After each utterance, neutral, happy, angry, sad, disgusted and feared face emojis will appear on the computer screen, and the participant will have to choose which one fits best with the emotion conveyed by the word according to its prosody. Utterances will be displayed in an audio headset at 60 dBA. They will be spaced with an 8-second interval to come back to a basal emotional state before each word. For an approximative 35-min task, about 24 stimuli per emotion (anger, disgust, fear, neutral, sadness and happiness) will be presented, for a total of 144 stimuli. Before starting the actual | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Current secondary outcome measures as of 10/10/2022: Experiment 1: cross-cultural differences between Mexican and Castilian Spanish of emotional prosodies measured by statistical analysis of the following physical acoustic features: 1.1. Rate (number of syllables per second) 1.2. Mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation pitch in hertz 1.3. Jitter local and jitter ppq5 in percentages 1.4. Shimmer local and shimmer apq5 in percentages 1.5. Harmonic-to-noise-ratio in decibels 1.6. Root mean square energy in volts 1.7. Mean, maximum, minimum intensity in decibels 1.8. Mean first, second and third formants in hertz 1.9. Mean first, second and third formants bandwidths in hertz 1.10. 13 first Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) Each participant will be recorded in one session. Experiment 2: electroencephalographic correlates of emotional processing under attentional load modulations. Event-Related Spectral Perturbations will be extracted to assess the effect of the visual task on emotional prosody processing, and to compare responses to the different emotions. Experiment 3: electroencephalographic correlates of discrimination of emotional prosodies uttered by synthesized and human voices measured by the analysis of the amplitude of the Late Positive Potential, P200, N300 components and the number of correct/incorrect responses. Each participant will be recorded in one session. Previous secondary outcome measures: Experiment 1: cross-cultural differences between Mexican and Castilian Spanish of emotional prosodies measured by statistical analysis of the following physical acoustic features: 1.1. Rate (number of syllables per second) 1.2. Mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation pitch in hertz 1.3. Jitter local and jitter ppq5 in percentages 1.4. Shimmer local and shimmer apq5 in percentages 1.5. Harmonic-to-noise-ratio in decibels 1.6. Root mean square energy in volts 1.7. Mean, maximum, minimum intensity in decibels 1.8. Mean first, second and third fo | — |
Countries
Mexico
Outcome results
None listed