Clinical trial NCT02358317: Motor Learning and Brain Changes in Autism
Official title: The Effects of Video Game Learning on the Brain in Adolescents With Autism: A Pilot Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Autistic Disorder
Keywords: Autism
Postural Stability
Exergaming
White Matter
Lead sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
First posted: 2015-02-06
Enrollment: 62
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 13
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The purpose of this pilot study is to determine whether a video-game based motor training can affect postural stability, daily living skills, autism symptoms, and white matter microstructure of the corticospinal tract in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Detailed description: Participants: Participants will include 30 adolescents with ASD (13-17 years of age) and 30 adolescents with typical development. Exclusion criteria consists of engaging in more than 2 hours/week of balance training activities (i.e., yoga, tai chi, Wii/Kinect balance games) at study start. Each individual will receive a pre-training magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a treatment group or control group. Over the next six weeks, participants in the treatment group will come to the lab to complete 3-5 hours/week of video-game motor training. Participants in the passive control group will come to the lab to do basic motor measurements and sedentary video gaming without motor training. Participants will be asked not to start any new exercise-related programs during those 6 weeks. After the sixth week, all participants will complete a post-training MRI scan and behavioral assessment.

Motor Video Game Training: Participants in the treatment group will come to the University of Wisconsin lab to train 3-5 days each week under research staff supervision. Each training session will last 30-60 minutes and will begin and end with \~5 minutes playing the Ninja Training game from Dr. Ellertson's lab (Boise State University). In this game, participants will hold a position (i.e., the Karate Kid crane pose) for as long as they can, while we collect time-series data on the position of each joint using the Kinect camera as well as time-series data on the center of pressure using the Wii balance board. Participants are rewarded for holding the pose as long as possible by seeing the background behind them come to life. For the rest of the training, participants will play balance games from the Wii Fit.

Motor \& Symptom Severity Assessments: Pre-post postural stability measures will be assessed in both groups through standing postures on the Wii balance board (as in Travers et al., 2013). Pre-post symptom severity measures will include parent-report measures of social function, repetitive behaviors/restricted interests, and measures of daily living skills.

Imaging Protocol: Pre- and post-training brain imaging will be completed using a 3 Tesla (ET) MRI scanner with a Nova 32-Channel Head Coil. All scanning will be performed in \<60 minutes. Pulse sequences and protocols include advanced diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with NODDI (Zhang et al., 2012) and multicomponent T1 and T2 relaxometry using steady state sequences (mcDESPOT; Deoni et al., 2008; Alexander et al., 2011). Structural imaging of anatomical detail for morphometric analyses will also be performed using a custom MP2RAGE sequence, which inherently removes the intensity variations from inhomogeneities in the coil sensitivities.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria for ASD group:

* Previous diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
* Meet criteria for ASD on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS) and Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Co-occuring tuberous sclerosis, fragile X, a history of severe head injury, intellectual disability (IQ\<70), or hypoxia-ischemia.
* Participants will not be able to be already engaged in more than 2 hours/week of balance training activities (i.e., yoga, tai chi, Wii/Kinect balance games) at study start

Primary outcomes:
measure: Balance Time
timeFrame: 6 weeks
measure: Postural Stability
timeFrame: 6 weeks
measure: White matter microstructure of the Corticospinal tract
timeFrame: 6 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Adaptive Daily Living Skills
timeFrame: 6 weeks
measure: Social Responsiveness
timeFrame: 6 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Madison
country: United States
facility: Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
state: Wisconsin
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Wisconsin, Madison
name: Brittany G Travers, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Travers BG, Powell PS, Klinger LG, Klinger MR. Motor difficulties in autism spectrum disorder: linking symptom severity and postural stability. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Jul;43(7):1568-83. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1702-x.
citation: Deoni SC, Rutt BK, Arun T, Pierpaoli C, Jones DK. Gleaning multicomponent T1 and T2 information from steady-state imaging data. Magn Reson Med. 2008 Dec;60(6):1372-87. doi: 10.1002/mrm.21704.
citation: Alexander AL, Hurley SA, Samsonov AA, Adluru N, Hosseinbor AP, Mossahebi P, Tromp do PM, Zakszewski E, Field AS. Characterization of cerebral white matter properties using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging stains. Brain Connect. 2011;1(6):423-46. doi: 10.1089/brain.2011.0071. Epub 2012 Jan 27.
citation: Zhang H, Schneider T, Wheeler-Kingshott CA, Alexander DC. NODDI: practical in vivo neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging of the human brain. Neuroimage. 2012 Jul 16;61(4):1000-16. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.072. Epub 2012 Mar 30.