Assessing Moral Cognitive Skills in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders

NCT05551260 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 2022-A01040-43
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 60
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

In the international literature, it is currently accepted that, relative to neurotypicals, people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present patterns of moral judgments marked by a minimization of intentionality and a strong condemnation of agents responsible for accidents. However, until now, all studies are based on declarative paradigms, and no one has proposed to examine the relationship of people with ASD to moral transgressions (i.e. to a bad action done deliberately or to a good deed deliberately omitted) in an implicit paradigm, that is, when the answer is made on the assignment of an expressive face to these moral offenses. Furthermore, no study has investigated whether diminished sensitivity to intention and intransigence of incidental judgment occur in both automatic (implicit) and deliberative (explicit) settings. Investigators planned to study how people with ASD without intellectual disability process emotions expressed by others in response to different forms of moral offense and to examine whether patterns potentially contrast in degree and/or kind with those of neurotypicals.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Keywords

Moral cognition; autism spectrum disorders

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Evaluation of moral cognition

  First the reading of a vignette presenting a moral scenario jointly manipulating variables of intention and consequence. This systematic manipulation, commonly used in the field of moral judgment, leads to 4 combinations of variables: intentional harm: present intention; present consequence attempted harm: present intention; absent consequence accidental harm: absent intention; present consequence accidental harm with positive intention: positive intention; present consequence A presentation to the participants of a face presenting an intense facial expression (in a counterbalanced way of man or woman. Explicit procedure: After the implicit classification task, the participants will see the same photo and will have to indicate whether the expression of this person is appropriate to the situation described. The proportion of correct answers (CP) will be recorded.

  at day 0

• Evaluation of moral cognition

  First the reading of a vignette presenting a moral scenario jointly manipulating variables of intention and consequence. This systematic manipulation, commonly used in the field of moral judgment, leads to 4 combinations of variables: intentional harm: present intention; present consequence attempted harm: present intention; absent consequence accidental harm: absent intention; present consequence accidental harm with positive intention: positive intention; present consequence A presentation to the participants of a face presenting an intense facial expression (in a counterbalanced way of man or woman 1\. Implicit procedure: The participants will participate to an implicit task consisting in classifying as quickly as possible the sex to which the character of the photograph belongs (male or female). The response time (TR) will be recorded.

  between day 1 and day 21

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Reasoning and general intellectual level

  at day 0 and between day 1 and day 21

• Attentional and executive measures

  at day 0 and between day 1 and day 21

• Social cognitive measures

  at day 0 and between day 1 and day 21

• Alexithymia

  at day 0 and between day 1 and day 21

Study Arms (2)

People with ASD

EXPERIMENTAL

30 people with ASD without IDD

Other: Neuropsychological assessments (tests allowing to measures attentional, executive and emotional performances) and experimental protocol assessing moral cognition

Neurotypicals

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

30 neurotypicals

Other: Neuropsychological assessments (tests allowing to measures attentional, executive and emotional performances) and experimental protocol assessing moral cognition

Interventions

Neuropsychological assessments (tests allowing to measures attentional, executive and emotional performances) and experimental protocol assessing moral cognition OTHER

Day 0: sending of the information notice Day 1 : signing the consent form + neuropsychological tests assessing reasoning and abstraction abilities, attentional processes, executive functions (including inhibition and mental flexibility) and social cognitive functions, including facial emotion recognition, theory of mind and perception and social knowledge (duration 1h30-2h). Experimental protocol: vignettes of moral offenses manipulating variables of intention and consequence. This systematic manipulation, commonly used in the field of moral judgment, usually leads to 3 combinations of variables: intentional harm (present intention; present consequence); attempted harm (intent present; consequence absent); accidental harm (intention absent; consequence present). Another form of accidental harm will also be constructed (positive intention; present consequence) (duration : 1h) Between day 1 and day 21 : second part of the Day 1 tests

Neurotypicals; People with ASD

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 40 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• ASD group:
• Diagnosis of ASD according to DSM-5 criteria
• Age between 18 and 40 years old
• Francophone
• Affiliated to social security
• Having given their consent to participate in the study
• Patient under guardianship and curatorship
• Neurotypical group:
• Age between 18 and 40 years old
• Francophone
• Affiliated to a social security scheme
• Having given their consent to participate in the study

You may not qualify if:

• ASD group:
• Diagnosis of intellectual development disorder established according to DSM-5 criteria
• Language, sensory or motor impairments hindering participation in the study
• Control group:
• Neurodevelopmental pathology (declarative)
• Neurological pathology
• Language, sensory or motor impairments hindering participation in the study

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hôpital le Vinatier: lead

Study Sites (1)

centre de réhabilitation - Hôpital le Vinatier

Lyon, Rhône, 69006, France

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Elodie PEYROUX

  Centre Hospitalier le Vinatier

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Elodie PEYROUX, PhD

CONTACT

04.37.91.51.63; elodie.peyroux@ch-le-vinatier.fr

Lydie SARTELET

CONTACT

04.37.91.55.31; lydie.sartelet@ch-le-vinatier.fr

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: This study uses standard neuropsychological tests and a computerized experimental task, submitted to two parallel groups: participants with ASD and control participants matched in age, gender and level of education (1:1 ratio). Participants in both groups completed the neuropsychological tests and the experimental task successively (fixed order for all participants). Within the experimental task, the experimental conditions appear randomly.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 19, 2022
• First Posted: September 22, 2022
• Study Start: May 2, 2023
• Primary Completion: April 1, 2025
• Study Completion: April 1, 2025
• Last Updated: March 7, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FR (1)