Investigating the Specificity of Neural Correlates for Emotion Processing Deficits in Conduct Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Conditions: Autism-Spectrum Disorder; Conduct Disorder
• Interventions: Other: neuroimaging session (with simultaneously acquired eye-tracking); Other: Questionnaire (for children) assessing traumatic experiences (Childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ)); Other: Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) questionnaire (for children); Other: Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI-2) (for children); Other: Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (for children); Other: Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) (for children); Other: Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) (for children); Other: Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (for children); Other: Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (for children); Other: Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) (for children); Other: Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (for parents); Other: Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits (ICU) (for parents); Other: Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (for parents); Other: Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) (for parents); Other: Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) (for parents)

• Registration Number: NCT04324099
• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Brief Summary

This study is

1. to investigate the differential and shared neural underpinnings of facial emotion processing within Conduct disorder (CD) and Autism-Spectrum disorder (ASD) and

2. to investigate the interaction between deficits in emotion processing and dysfunctional cognitive control processes.

Differences in emotion processing and the underlying neural underpinnings of such differences will be assessed by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) without any contrast agent, combined with adapted emotion processing paradigms and eye tracking techniques.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2020-03-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-03-24
• Study First Posted: 2020-03-27
• Study Start: 2020-07-16
• Status Verified: 2022-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-02-28
• Last Update Posted: 2022-03-02
• Primary Completion: 2023-04
• Study Completion: 2023-06

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 120

Inclusion Criteria

• For all participants: age between 10 and 18 years and an intelligence quotient score of 70 or higher.
• For patient groups: confirmed clinical diagnoses according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 of CD or ASD (depending on the group), without comorbid depression or anxiety psychological disorders.

Exclusion Criteria

• For all participants: low intelligence (IQ<70, as they might otherwise not fully understand what they are expected to do inside the scanner), insufficient German language skills or any contraindications for MRI (e.g. pregnancy, any non-removable metal within the subjects' body, claustrophobia).
• For patient groups: severe developmental disorders, comorbid depressive and/or anxiety disorders will also be excluded from the study since it was shown that these patients might have problems in attention allocation under emotional stimulation.
• For typically developing participants: suspicion of an undiagnosed clinical disorder

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits (ICU) (for parents)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) (for parents)	children and adolescents with ASD
Conduct disorder	Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) questionnaire (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	neuroimaging session (with simultaneously acquired eye-tracking)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Questionnaire (for children) assessing traumatic experiences (Childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ))	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI-2) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (for parents)	children and adolescents with ASD
typically developing adolescents	Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
Conduct disorder	Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (for parents)	children and adolescents with CD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) questionnaire (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
typically developing adolescents	Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (for parents)	typically developing adolescents
Conduct disorder	Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI-2) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) (for parents)	children and adolescents with CD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
typically developing adolescents	neuroimaging session (with simultaneously acquired eye-tracking)	typically developing adolescents
Conduct disorder	Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits (ICU) (for parents)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) (for parents)	children and adolescents with CD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Questionnaire (for children) assessing traumatic experiences (Childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ))	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) (for children)	children and adolescents with ASD
Conduct disorder	Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (for parents)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Conduct disorder	Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (for children)	children and adolescents with CD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	neuroimaging session (with simultaneously acquired eye-tracking)	children and adolescents with ASD
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (for parents)	children and adolescents with ASD
typically developing adolescents	Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI-2) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
Autism-Spectrum disorder	Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) (for parents)	children and adolescents with ASD
typically developing adolescents	Questionnaire (for children) assessing traumatic experiences (Childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ))	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) questionnaire (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) (for children)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) (for parents)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits (ICU) (for parents)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (for parents)	typically developing adolescents
typically developing adolescents	Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) (for parents)	typically developing adolescents

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
difference between groups (children and adolescents with CD, ASD and typically developing adolescents) in neural activity	fMRI imaging Day 1	difference between groups in neural activity as measured by Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal during emotion processing using a priori defined regions of interest (ROIs) including the insula, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal Cortex in fMRI

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Emotion processing task (fMRI)	fMRI imaging Day 1	Emotion processing task (fMRI): measures of eye gaze collected by eye-tracking

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, KJPK (UPK); 🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland