Extrait

Background and study aims Autism-spectrum conditions are characterised by a number of deficits in social cognition. This includes a relative difficulty identifying emotional expression in others. Our pilot work has indicated that it is possible to modify how individuals perceive emotional expression, such that when viewing computer-generated ‘morph sequences’ running from one emotion to another, individuals see a change in the emotion somewhere in the middle. This balance point will be used to provide false feedback in the training phase, whereby participants will be trained to judge expressions previously judged as neutral as happy. In this way, sensitivity to a particular emotion can be increased. Pilot work in healthy volunteers shows that it is possible to sensitize(and desensitize) this population to individual emotions. These early findings suggest that the emotion modification task could be beneficial for individuals with deficits in emotional processing. However, it remains unclear whether individuals with these deficits can engage with this type of task and show differences in processing after completing the task. We therefore propose to examine whether individuals with autism-spectrum conditions show similar changes in perception to individuals without an autism-related diagnosis. Who can participate? Participants will be 30 males and females aged 18 years or older with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition. What does the study involve? This is a computer-based intervention which presents faces on a neutral to happy morph sequence. Participants have to judge the emotion of the face presented. Feedback (informing participants whether they have made a correct or incorrect judgement) is used to train the participants after baseline measures of emotion perception have been taken. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: a treatment group, in which we attempt to change the perception of emotion, and a control group, in which feedback reflects their baseline performance (i.e. makes no attempt to change their perception of emotion). What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? A possible benefit would be an increased sensitivity to the perception of happy facial emotional expressions. There are no predicted risks of participating. Where is the study run from? The study is being run from The University of Bristol and the Bristol Autism Spectrum Service: Petherton Resource Centre (Bristol, UK). When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for? June to September 2012 Who is funding the study? University of Bristol (UK) Who is the main contact? Prof. Marcus Munafo [email protected]

Critère d'inclusion

• Autism Spectrum Conditions

Liens

• isrctn
• ictrp