Using personalised brain stimulation to modulate social cognition in adults with autism-spectrum-disorder: protocol...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by social interaction and communication challenges.
• Individuals with ASD often exhibit reduced activity and connectivity in the brain's mentalizing pathway, particularly the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ).
• The rTPJ is a critical hub for social information processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of personalized, non-invasive brain stimulation on social information processing in adults with and without high-functioning ASD.
• To modulate brain activity in the rTPJ and related social cognition regions using neuroimaging-guided intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS).
• To gain mechanistic insights into the social brain's functioning.

Main Methods:

• A single-blind, randomized, between-subject neuroimaging-guided brain stimulation study.
• Recruitment of 52 participants with ASD and 52 age- and sex-matched controls (18-65 years).
• Administration of one session of either verum or sham intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) targeting individualized rTPJ activation maxima, assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• Assessment of effects using behavioral tasks and computational modeling of social behavior.

Main Results:

• This section is not available in the provided abstract.

Conclusions:

• This study pioneers the use of personalized, non-invasive brain stimulation for altering social information processing in adults with high-functioning ASD.
• The combination of neuroimaging, brain stimulation, behavioral tasks, and computational modeling in a large sample size offers potential for novel mechanistic insights into the social brain.