Autism, Emotional Processing, and the Amygdala

Yawei Cheng

Status: Completed

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04549506

YM102035

Details and patient eligibility

About

Empathy imbalance hypothesis suggests that individuals with autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) should have a deficit of cognitive empathy and a surfeit of emotional empathy. Considering that inconsistent amygdala reactivity to emotional faces might be ascribed to aberrant attention in ASD, the investigators hypothesized to investigate if there would be an imbalance between conscious and nonconscious emotional processing. This fMRI study recruited 26 youths and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and 25 matched controls, and measured their amygdala reactivity and functional connectivity in response to conscious and nonconscious (backward masked) perception of threatening faces.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; amygdala reactivity; emotional processing; fMRI

Enrollment: 51 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Clinical diagnosis of severity of Autism-Spectrum Disorders
• IQ > 75

Exclusion criteria

• Neurological abnormalities,
• A history of epilepsy or seizures, head trauma a
• IQ <75

Trial design

51 participants in 2 patient groups

ASD group

Description:

There is no intervention to be administered in this study. Here, this fMRI study used the backwardly masked paradigm to elucidate how perceiving emotional expressions affects amygdala engagement and its related functional connectivity across two participant groups: ASD with and controls. All ASD participants were diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition's (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria (APA, 2013) and confirmed by clinical consensus. ASD individuals were recruited from a community autism program and referred to children's health doctors and child psychiatrists. Exclusion criteria for all participants were neurological abnormalities, a history of epilepsy or seizures, head trauma and IQ \<75. The subjects did not participate in any intervention or drug programs during the experimental period.

Control group

Description:

There is no intervention to be administered in this study. Here, this fMRI study used the backwardly masked paradigm to elucidate how perceiving emotional expressions affects amygdala engagement and its related functional connectivity across two participant groups: ASD with and controls. The participants in the age- and sex-matched control group were recruited from the local community, and screened for major psychiatric illnesses by conducting structured interviews.