Sensory Phenotypes of Autism Spectrum Disorder

National Taiwan University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Autism

Treatments: Behavioral: no intervention

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05829161

201903126RINA

Details and patient eligibility

About

This project plans to establish sensory phenotypes of a Taiwanese ASD cohort across lifespan, including variety of sensory modalities, sensory domains, and clinical correlates.

Also, we will clarify the relationship between sensory phenotypes and social impairment by two specific sensory-social paradigms targeting eye gaze avoidance and social touch anxiety, as well as the atypical neural representation of ASD during eye gaze and viewing social touch by fMRI and EEG.

Full description

Sensory disturbance of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are life-long highly-impairing challenges for the individual. Anxiety and fear around the sensory issues significantly threatens the psychological and mental health. As a newly introduced diagnostic criteria of ASD, sensory characteristics becomes a recent focus of ASD research. The ASD population is aging, how their sensory features naturally change with age is particular relevant for their adaptation. However, current literature are limited to childhood and young adults and mostly rely on behavioral report, lacking a clear whole picture of changing sensory phenotype in terms of different sensory modality and sensory domains. Besides, how sensory characteristics in ASD can be quantified by objective measures or explored by qualitative approach, how the sensory sensitivity contributes to the core social deficits in ASD such as eye gaze or social touch avoidance are unclear. This project plans to achieve the following aims:

1. Establish sensory phenotypes of a Taiwanese ASD cohort across lifespan, including variety of sensory modalities (i.e., visual, tactile, auditory, smell/taste, proprioception, etc.), sensory domains (i.e., low registration, sensory seeking, sensory sensitivity, and sensory avoiding), and clinical correlates.
2. Clarify the relationship between sensory phenotypes and social impairment by two specific sensory-social paradigms targeting eye gaze avoidance and social touch anxiety, which are hallmarks of ASD. Factors of emotion types as well as familiarity of faces or social/object touch will be manipulated to examine how they moderate eye tracking and pupil response.
3. Identify the atypical neural representation of ASD during eye gaze and viewing social touch by fMRI and EEG.

Enrollment: 480 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ months old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Aim#1

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder Aim#2 and #3

ASD group:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder
• Age above 12-40 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• No diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder
• Pregnant woman
• Metal implant in the body

TD group:

Inclusion Criteria:

• No diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder
• Age above 12-40 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of major psychiatric disorders
• Pregnant woman
• Metal implant in the body

Trial design

480 participants in 2 patient groups

ASD Group

Description:

ASD participants, no intervention

Treatment:

Behavioral: no intervention

TD Group

Description:

TD participants, no intervention

Treatment:

Behavioral: no intervention