Neurotherapy to Promote Emotion Recognition in Autism

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, more prevalent than previously thought and heterogeneous in expression, though uniformly characterized by severe social disability. The social disability that defines ASD pervades other areas of adaptive behavior, is predictive of secondary mental health problems, and adversely affects long-term outcome. Although ASD is a chronic condition, there has been little research on interventions for adults with ASD. This study proposes to first establish the neural plasticity of specific brain mechanisms underlying difficulties with facial emotion recognition, a core deficit believed to be pivotal in the behavioral expression of ASD-social disability. The investigators will then develop a novel, computer-based intervention using real-time feedback, to the user, to ameliorate emotion recognition deficits.

Detailed Description
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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to have difficulty in the recognition of facial emotion. Such deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) are thought to cause or exacerbate social disability in ASD by preventing 1) accurate detection of social/emotional information conveyed through the face and, subsequently 2) the deployment of emotionally appropriate responses. Consistent with this model, FER deficits are correlated with social disability in ASD and confer morbidity above and beyond core symptoms. The long-term goal is to understand how FER networks can be manipulated for therapeutic and preventative purposes. In this trial, investigators are testing the feasibility of an intervention that capitalizes on our previously developed brain-computer interface (BCI) to promote FER in a mixed virtual reality world. The new FER Assistant tool (deployed on a tablet - iPad) is intended to aid users in detecting emotions and intents of 'avatars' inhabiting a virtual world, and will provide users with a highly realistic testbed for practicing FER skills in concert with BCI.

Official Title
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Neurotherapy to Promote Emotion Recognition in Autism

Conditions
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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: neurofeedback


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: diagnosis of ASD Exclusion Criteria: No severe psychopathology which warrants other immediate treatment

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 16 Years
Maximum Age: 29 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Male

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: active<br>Neurofeedback for FER | Behavioral: neurofeedback<br>* real-time feedback on accuracy of emotion recognition<br>|
| No Intervention: control<br>waiting list | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| facial emotion recognition (RMET) | Change in facial emotion recognition 5 weeks after baseline appointment | 5 weeks |