Quantitative Sensory Testing to Study Pain Perception in Autism

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Quantitative 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.

EEG: 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).

Study 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

Primary outcome measure(s)

• EEG responses in the time domain — from the enrollment to the end of EEG recordin (approx. 3 days)
  ERPs amplitude (μV)
• Cold detection threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (°C) at which a cold stimulus is perceived by each participant
• Warm detection threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (°C) at which a warm stimulus is perceived by each participant
• Cold pain threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (°C) at which a cold stimulus is perceived as painful by each participant
• Warm pain threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (°C) at which a warm stimulus is perceived as painful by each participant
• Mechanical detection threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (mN) at which a mechanical stimulus is perceived by each participant. It is a measure of touch perception
• Mechanical pain threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (mN) at which a mechanical stimulus is perceived as painful by each participant.
• Vibration detection threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (Hz) at which a vibratory stimulus is perceived by each participant.
• Pressure pain threshold — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 2 days)
  The minimum intensity value (N) at which a pressure stimulus is perceived as painful by each participant.
• EEG responses in the time-frequency domain — from the enrollment to the end of QST administration (approx. 3 days)
  Power-spectrum of eeg responses

Trial sites (1)

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