An Investigation of Arousal and Escape Behaviour in Fragile X Syndrome
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Investigation of Stress-Related Arousal and Escape Behaviour
IRAS ID
165297
Contact name
Rebecca Lyndsey Hardiman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Kent
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
It has been hypothesised that people with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS; a genetic condition associated with learning disability) may be more sensitive to learning behaviours which allow them to escape or avoid unwanted situations. In general, people with FXS show high levels of ‘avoidance’ behaviour (such as gaze aversion). Significantly, avoidance behaviour may include challenging behaviours (such as self-injury or aggression): recent research has demonstrated that a high proportion of challenging behaviours are learned behaviours which allow the individual to escape or avoid unwanted situations, such as the presentation of difficult work. As such, it is believed that an aberrant motivation to escape from unwanted situations may place individuals with FXS at risk of learning challenging behaviours (as others may inadvertently reinforce by allowing the person to leave the situation when they show difficult behaviour). The aim of this study is to investigate this proposed motivational change, by comparing the use of a taught escape behaviour during the presentation of school work, between groups of children with FXS and others with learning disabilities. The social demands (such as amount of eye gaze) and difficulty of the work will be varied, to identify situations associated with higher levels of escape responding.
Other research shows that males with FXS may show an altered bodily response to stressors, including elevated activity in the autonomic nervous system (which controls the fight or flight response), as well as the endocrine stress system (which mediates the body’s response to stressors over the longer term). We will investigate whether the ‘stress’ response to an everyday challenging situation (presentation of work) differs between those with FXS and others with a learning disability, and explore whether this relates to how much individuals request to escape the situation during the structured assessment.
The aim is to understand how genetics may affect behaviour, so that improved targeted interventions and prevention for challenging behaviour can be developed.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0002
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion