1. Call (323) 391-8795 or email ucla.scan.lab@gmail.com to set up a time to complete a short telephone interview. During this short call, a research team member will ask you questions about your child’s mental and developmental history in order to confirm study eligibility. If you don’t qualify for our study or would like to involved in more, you can also check out the UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment’s Research Page.
2. After passing our screening interview, we will then schedule you for an intake visit in our lab. Here are some things that we often complete during that initial visit:
a. Mock MRI scan: We will complete a practice scan with your child to make sure that they are comfortable laying still and to give them a chance to get acquainted with the MRI environment before the real scan. During this practice, your child will play 2 video games while wearing a motion-tracking headband.
b. Cognitive assessment: Your child will complete a few puzzles and games with a research team member. Most of this assessment can be completed remotely through a Zoom session.
c. Clinic visit (For participants with Autism): You and your child may be asked to complete some diagnositic assessments (ADOS/ADI-R) at the UCLA Child and Adult Neurodevelopmental Clinic.
3. After a successful intake visit, you will then be scheduled for your study visit! This visit may include the following tasks:
a. Parent and Participant Questionnaires
b. Psychophysiological Sensory Assessment: Your child will play with a variety of sensory games and tasks while we record their heart rate, sweat response, and brow furrow response.
c. Brain Scans (MRI): During the 45-90 minute MRI scan, your child will participate in several tasks. For some of the scans, your child will get to watch a movie, use a set of buttons to identify emotions, or listen to different sounds and feel a scratchy brush or fabric on their arm.
d. Tactile Discrimination Task: Your child will feel vibrations on their fingertips, and will be asked to detect aspects of the sensation, such as which finger felt the stronger vibration.
4. If you are participating in a longitudinal project, you may be asked to come back to UCLA to complete some additional tasks.
5. At the end of study participation, you will be compensated for the tasks that you completed. We will also send you a picture/video of your child’s brain, and you may request an individualized report on your child’s sensory responsiveness!
Here are some changes that our team has adopted in order to ensure that we are taking every precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while research continues. Please feel free to reach out to the study team with any further questions!
1. We will complete a quick health screener with you before your visit to UCLA and immediately upon your arrival to campus. Study staff have been fully vaccinated.
2. On the day of the visit, prior to the scan, we will do some additional screeners to ensure that only children with no symptoms of COVID-19 enter the lab. This will include taking your/your child’s temperature and testing your blood oxygen levels using a pulse oxygenation device.
3. Everyone participating in research activities will follow recommended face-covering guidelines by wearing masks and we have expanded and increased sanitation procedures.
4. Research staff will be restricted to 2-3 team members at your scan in order to enable greater social distancing.
5. Indoor face-to-face time between research staff and participants will not exceed 15 minutes at a time. To facilitate this, we will meet participants outside and only bring them inside just prior to the scan session. Any final practice for scanner tasks will be conducted remotely with participants and research staff in two separate rooms inside the scanner suite.
6. Additionally, day-of study participation will now include just the MRI scan and a 15-minute sensory assessment. Other study tasks (parent interview, questionnaires) may be completed remotely.
