Social attention study for children with autism and intellectual disability

This project studies attention to social images in autistic children with intellectual disability (ID) and non-autistic children with ID. We are studying behavior and brain systems to better understand the different ways these children experience the social world. In this project researchers will test a novel interactive experimental delivery system that helps people participate in research without needing to understand complex instructions. The experiment uses computer vision systems that reward participants for sitting still and attending, rather than asking a participant to sit quietly and attend to a computer screen without incentive.

We are currently recruiting both autistic children with intellectual disability (ID) and non-autistic children with ID between the ages of 3 and 17 years old.

Participation in this study involves the following:

Children and their parents will visit the McPartland Lab at Yale University for 2 separate in-person visits. Each visits lasts approximately 4 hours.

Children will complete cognitive and diagnostic testing on the first day. They will also be asked to complete an EEG and eye-tracking session where they will watch videos on a computer screen while we measure their gaze and record their brain waves and movement. This can be completed at the second visit.

Parents are asked to complete a set of parent interviews and questionnaires.

Families are provided with a feedback session to review their child’s results, recommendations in moving forward, and to help answer any questions they may have. Families will also receive a written report and compensation of $120 for their time.

The goal of this study is to develop a novel system for including profoundly autistic individuals in research. The method used in this study will open the door for children with limited verbal expression or comprehension to participate in a wider range of research than ever before. By welcoming a more diverse group of children into neuroscience research, we gain a better understanding of the brain in autism.