RecruitingNCT06659731

Quantitative Sensory Testing to Study Pain Perception in Autism

Pain Perception in Autism. Study Through Quantitative Sensory Testing and Psychophysiological Correlates

Sponsor

IRCCS Eugenio Medea

Enrollment

50 participants

Start Date

Jul 17, 2024

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)Pain perception

Summary

This study aims at assess sensory perception, and pain perception, in neurodivergent children and adolescent in the autism spectrum. To achieve this goal, the quantitive sensory testing (QST), a controlled and replicable protocol, will be used, to assess perception in different sensory modalities: heat sensations, mechanical detection threshold and pain threshold. As secondary aim, the cortical processing of thermal painful stimuli will be collected through electroencephalography (EEG) in order to investigate if there are differences in the cortical processing of painful stimuli between clinical sample and control sample, and if it could be associated with differences in the subjective experience between the two groups. Finally, it will be explored the association between such differences, and indexes of psychopathology and dispositional measures.

Eligibility

Min Age: 5 YearsMax Age: 17 Years

Plain Language Summary

Simplified for easier understanding

This clinical trial is studying EEG and Quantitative Sensory testing (QST) for people with autism spectrum disorder (asd) and pain perception. The study is currently recruiting participants at 1 location. People eligible for this study include aged 5 Years to 17 Years.

This summary was AI-generated to explain the trial in plain language. It is not medical advice. Always discuss eligibility with your doctor before enrolling in a clinical trial.

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Interventions

OTHERQuantitative Sensory testing (QST)

The QST protocol (Rolke et al., 2006; Blankenburg et al., 2010), implies the administration of 7 short sensory test in order to measure up to 13 parameters, which can be grouped as follows: thermal detection thresholds for the perception of cold, warm and paradoxical heat sensations, thermal pain thresholds for cold and hot stimuli, mechanical detection thresholds for touch and vibration, mechanical pain thresholds and sensitivity for pinprick and blunt pressure, vibration detection threshold and pressure pain threshold.

OTHEREEG

EEG recording at rest and while receiving heat stimuli to study cortical processing of salient thermal stimuli. Up to 30 painful thermal stimuli, will be delivered to the patients' hand dorsum in order to register contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs).