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Project

Kan langdurige intranasale oxytocine toediening prosociaal gedrag stimuleren bij autisme? Een combinatie van multimodale beeldvorming van de hersenen, oxytocinerge metingen en real-life sociale interactie paradigma's om subtiele interventie effecten te l

During my PDM research, I want to extend my PhD research building on the collected data. First, I will focus on integrating the different neuroimaging modalities (EEG, fMRI, sMRI and dMRI), to gain an in-depth understanding in the expressive face processing circuitry of autism and the underlying neural mechanisms of frequency-tagging EEG. Secondly, I will report about the impact of endogenous OT levels and OXTR DNA methylation levels on oxytocin pharmacotherapy outcome, in order to identify biological mediators for personalised treatment. Thirdly, I will turn towards more natural, implicit and ecologically valid social reciprocity measures, and study eye gaze and autonomic nervous system (ANS) stress physiology during real-life social interactions. I will compare children with and without ASD on these measures followed by the evaluation of the effect of an oxytocin intervention on these measures immediately post-treatment and at a four-week follow-up. Lastly, from a more fundamental perspective, the placebo test-retest data gathered will provide valuable information about the robustness (i.e. stability and reliability) of our real-life eye-tracking paradigm.
Date:1 Oct 2022 →  30 Sep 2023
Keywords:Autisme Spectrum Disorders, Oxytocin pharmacotherapy, Multimodal brain imaging, Oxytocinergic measures, Real-life interaction
Disciplines:Biological psychiatry, Neurocognitive patterns and neural networks, Developmental neuroscience, Pharmacotherapy, Behavioural sciences