NCT06925308

Course of Face-to-face Interactions in Adults With Autism

Course of Face-to-face Interactions in Adults With Autism: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Experimental Design

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 54 (estimated)
• Sponsor: UMC Utrecht · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This research explores how adults with autism make eye contact during formal and informal interactions; to what extent the nature of a conversation influences how eye contact is made in terms of length, frequency and overall presentation. Also what physiological responses to eye contact are, in order to determine to what extent eye contact leads to an increased, decreased or unchanged stress level. In addition, to gain insight into the similarities and differences in how people with ASD respond to eye contact of others compared to their own eye contact.

Detailed description

This research explores how adults with autism make eye contact during formal and informal interactions; to what extent the nature of a conversation influences how eye contact is made in terms of length, frequency and overall presentation. Also what physiological responses to eye contact are, in order to determine to what extent eye contact leads to an increased, decreased or unchanged stress level. In addition, to gain insight into the similarities and differences in how people with ASD respond to eye contact of others compared to their own eye contact. The research design chosen is an exploratory mixed methods study, which was developed in co-design with an expert by experience. The design consists of two parts. In the first part, the researcher will have a conversation (with a formal and informal phase, in which the subject will be given the idea that only the formal part is part of the research) with an adult with ASD, during which hidden recordings of the subject's eye behavior will be made, and in addition, skin conductance and duration/frequency of the subject's eye contact will be recorded, without the subject knowing that this is intended for research into eye contact. In the second part, the researcher and subject watch the hidden recording of the subject's eye behavior, during which the subject's skin conductance will be recorded and special features of the subject, as seen by the researcher. Both the arrangement of the subjects and researcher, as well as the physiological measurements, will be tested in advance.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Neurotypical

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Conversation	The design consists of two parts. In the first part, the researcher will have a conversation (with a formal and informal phase, where the subject will be given the idea that only the formal part is part of the study) with an adult with ASD during which covert recordings of the subject's eye behavior will be made, and in addition skin conductance and duration/frequency of eye contact of the subject will be recorded, without the subject knowing that this is intended for the purpose of studying eye contact. In the second part, the researcher and subject will watch the covert recording of the subject's eye behavior, during which the subject's skin conductance will be recorded and details of the subject's behavior as seen by the researcher.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-02-03
• Primary completion: 2025-09-30
• Completion: 2026-04-30
• First posted: 2025-04-13
• Last updated: 2025-04-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands