Emotional and Change-related Attention in Autism

Emotional and Change-related Attention in Autism

Several studies seem to indicate that emotional attention and change-related attention are impaired in ASD. The goal of this study is to identify the relationships between those two types of automatic attention in visual and auditory modalities in subjects with ASD compared to healthy controls and also, over the course of development (children, adults). In order to achieve this goal, the investigators will use complementary techniques (EEG and MRI-based techniques (fMRI, DTI)).

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by major handicap in social interaction and in daily life adaptation. The orienting response towards potentially relevant events involves automatic attentional mechanisms that would be elicited mainly by two classes of biologically important stimulations: novel stimuli and emotional stimuli. The neural basis of emotional and change-related attention in ASD will be explored by investigating brain reactivity in both visual and auditory modalities, during tasks mixing emotional and non emotional stimuli.

Inclusion Criteria:

• No past history of central nervous system disorders
• Written consent
• Affiliated to the National Health Insurance
• Do not participate to another biomedical research
• For ASD group: Children with autism spectrum disorder (DSM-V criteria) and adults with high-functioning autism
• For healthy subjects: No past history of difficulties in early childhood for acquisition of walk, language or reading and no psychiatric disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• Abnormal corrected vision
• Abnormal audition
• Not stabilized psychoactive treatment or treatment that can modify electrogenesis
• Infectious or metabolic diseases
• Epilepsies
• Impossibility to participate to the whole study
• For subjects participating to the MRI recordings: MRI counter-indications (pace-makers ...), claustrophobia or a positive pregnancy test