Autism Spectrum Disorder
Conditions
Keywords
ASD, Startle
Brief summary
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.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPictures
The participants will be exposed to pictures of faces and non-facial stimuli presented on a PC screen.
BEHAVIORALStartle eliciting noise
Startle will be elicited by 95 dB noise, presented at different times after picture onset.
Sponsors
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Health
University of Tromso
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
7 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
For ASD group: Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The eyeblink of the Startle reflex is measured. | 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. |
Countries
Norway
Outcome results
None listed