We are investigating humour in autistic and non-autistic developing adults. This project is funded by the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the China Scholarship Council. This study has been approved by the UCL Research Ethics Committee (ethics@ucl.ac.uk) and we have Covid Secure measures in place.
The brain scan will take place at BUCNI and the behavioural tasks will take place at UCL ICN (Both sites near Russell Square, London). It is only a short walk between these two locations (see map below). At both sites, our experiments will be conducted with appropriate social distancing and, where physical contact is required, full PPE will be worn by experimenters.
In the fMRI session, you will be asked to lie in the MRI scanner listening to funny sounds and press a button whenever you hear a long beep. Before and After the fMRI session, you will complete a computer task and watch some funny videos before and after the scan.
If you haven’t been scanned before, this guide gives you an idea of what to expect.
The whole session will take around 4 hours (max 4.5 hours) with a 1.5 hours (max) fMRI brain scan.
We can either come in for 4 hours of testing on one day or we can split the testing onto two testing days according to your convenience.
You’ll be paid £10 per hour for the testing and we will reimburse come-and-return travel costs on both days. However, if you come in for two rounds of testing, we will pay you at the end of the second round of testing.
Steps for taking part:- Contact Ceci Qing Cai (q.cai.17@ucl.ac.uk) if you are interested in taking part.
- One of our researchers will contact you shortly to check your eligibility. You MUST meet the MRI safety criteria to participate in this experiment.
- If you meet MRI safety criteria, one of our researchers will arrange a testing date with you.
- Before coming to BUCNI, the NHS checklists will be sent off to ensure you are symptom-free and low-risk of COVID complications, we are happy for last-minute cancellations due to COVID-related issues.
Please click the links below to get more detailed information (e.g. list of Q and As) about the Humor Research Project and more information about scanning and testing under COVID-19
Project_InformationSheet_15929 001.pdfCOVID_ICN_InfoSheet&ConsentForm2022.pdf
COVID_BUCNI_InfoSheet&ConsentForm.pdf
Have any questions or would you like to discuss the study in more detail?
Please do not hesitate to contact Ceci Qing Cai.
