Rt-fMRI NF Intervention Study in ASD (NF-ASD)

University of Coimbra

Status

Completed

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments

Device: Neurofeedback using BCI

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02440451

IBILI-VB-2015-02

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to demonstrate that fMRI neurofeedback training improves the identification and comprehension of emotional facial expressions (and overall social behaviour) in subjects with ASD.

The intervention setup provides structured presentation of emotional facial expressions and the associated tools for mental imagery. The investigators hypothesize that the accomplishment of the proposed competence training improves the subjects ability to comprehend facial expressions, identify emotions and be able to correctly express them.

Intervention Type is a Device (brain computer interface using brain imaging signals) and the specific Intervention Name is Neurofeedback.

Structure: (1) initial eligibility screening, (2) pre-intervention (first week of study, baseline outcome measures and additional evaluations), (3) intervention process (8 weeks), (4) post-intervention (outcome measures and additional evaluations), and (5) follow-up (outcome measures at 6 months).

Full description

Clinical research has demonstrated that ASD children have deficits in the identification and interpretation of the emotional and mental state of others (Baron-Cohen 2001). An important skill to this end (impaired in ASD patients), is to appropriately recognize and discriminate emotional expressions.

The main brain regions involved in face processing the inferior occipital gyri, lateral portion of the fusiform gyrus (especially a region deemed the fusiform face area or FFA), and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) (Haxby et al. 2000). STS plays a key role on several basic aspects in social information processing, and deficits in ASD have been found associated to this region.

The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of neurofeedback considering a social cognition brain region (i.e. pSTS) on the identification of facial expressions in ASD patients. The intervention comprehends seven BCI sessions spread over four months. The first four sessions are weekly, and the rest monthly. In each session, the subjects are asked to imagine different facial expressions and their brain activity (i.e. BOLD activation in the pSTS region) is interpreted and used to estimate a feedback signal.The hypothesis is that the training induced up-regulation of the target region, improves clinical symptoms.

Enrollment

15 patients

Sex

All

Ages

16 to 30 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Positive diagnostic results for ASD in:

Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised; Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule; The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria.

Exclusion criteria

Global Intelligence Quotient < 80
Associated medical condition such as epilepsy, neurocutaneous or other genetic syndromes, or other usual comorbidity in ASD samples