{"doi":"10.1016/j.jaacop.2025.11.003","title":"Neuroplasticity-Based Targeted Cognitive Training as Enhancement to Social Skills Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating a Novel Digital Application for Autistic Adolescents","abstract":"OBJECTIVE Few evidence-based social cognitive interventions are available to autistic youth as they navigate their complex, socially-demanding teenage years. Building from pilot research using neuroplasticity-based targeted cognitive-training (NB-TCT), we developed CICADAS (Care Improving Cognition for ADolescents on the Autism Spectrum), a digital application designed to prime the brain for socio-affective learning. In a randomized active-controlled trial with 3 comparison arms, we evaluated CICADAS as a stand-alone program and as an augmentation to evidence-based PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relationship Skills). METHOD Recruiting from clinics delivering PEERS, we enrolled sixty-two adolescents (11-18 years) with confirmed autism. Individuals scheduled to start PEERS were block-randomized into PEERS+CICADAS (N=22) and PEERS+Active Control (N=21) groups. A third comparison group (N=19) comprised individuals who would use the app as a stand-alone intervention (CICADAS-Only). In addition to in-app performance metrics, we collected data from social, behavioral, and cognitive assessments (self-report/parent-report measures) at Pre-Intervention (Baseline), Post-Intervention (16-weeks), and Follow-Up (32-weeks) sessions. RESULTS We found significant effects of GROUP, TIME, and GROUP X TIME on multiple measures collected longitudinally. For example, on the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, PEERS+CICADAS participants showed significant Psychosocial Health improvements ( F= 6.862, p=.002 ) over the study timeline compared to trend-level gains in the CICADAS-Only ( F= 2.150, p= .122) and PEERS+Active Control ( F= 1.917, p= .153) groups. While all participants improved from baseline on the Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition ( F= 11.038, p<.001 ), only the PEERS+CICADAS group gained significantly ( F= 3.786, p= .026) on the Social Cognition subscale across all three time-points. CONCLUSION Our data demonstrates the potential of CICADAS as a stand-alone program and suggests that engaging with the adaptive app (versus static Active Control) conferred an additional advantage to autistic teens participating in PEERS.","journal":"JAACAP Open","year":2025,"id":586152,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9568,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT04562688"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1500238,"name":"Amy Yang","orcid":"0009-0006-0567-3329","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1500239,"name":"Amy Vaughan Van Hecke","orcid":"0000-0002-0495-9054","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":909335,"name":"Rebekah L. Hudock","orcid":"0000-0001-6456-9835","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1500574,"name":"Elizabeth A. Laugeson","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1500575,"name":"Hyun Kyu Lee","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":532014,"name":"Bruno Biagianti","orcid":"0000-0002-5955-3019","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":104431,"name":"Suma Jacob","orcid":"0000-0001-7434-7398","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":539620,"name":"Angela Tseng","orcid":"0000-0002-4838-9452","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":55,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:28.666390Z","pmid":"41938232","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}