Functional Imaging of Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

NCT ID: NCT02551705

Last Updated: 2015-09-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2015-10-31
• Study Completion Date: 2017-10-31

Brief Summary

Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic progressive fatal neurodegenerative disorder. In the western world it affects 5-10 persons per 100000. The main brain changes include the loss of brain cells in subcortical structures. The symptoms of HD include involuntary movements, cognitive deterioration and behavioural disturbances. It has been shown that changes in emotion comprehension occur before the onset of the motor symptoms (preHD). This deficit in perception of emotions has been primarily investigated by means of facial expressions. However, emotions can also be expressed through body language. Here, the investigators propose to investigate whether the emotion comprehension deficit in preHD also includes body language comprehension.

Detailed Description

The investigators will perform a detailed evaluation of body language comprehension abilities in persons that carry the genetic mutation causing HD, but who do not show any movement symptoms yet. In addition, the associated changes in brain structure and function will be studied. The aim is to perform the study with the same group of participants who participated in a recent study carried on by this research group, in which the functional brain changes associated with increased irritability were investigated. This will allow to relate emotion experience with emotion perception. The results of the study may provide a target to further develop therapeutic interventions and aid caregivers of preHD subjects.

Conditions

Huntington's Disease

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

functional Imaging mutation carrier

Premanifest mutation carrier, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

functional Imaging

Intervention Type: OTHER

Brain responses associated with emotional memory will be investigated

functional Imaging non-carrier

non-carrier family member, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

functional Imaging

Intervention Type: OTHER

Brain responses associated with emotional memory will be investigated

Interventions

functional Imaging

Brain responses associated with emotional memory will be investigated

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Huntington's disease positive genotype and non-carrier siblings

Exclusion Criteria

• visible chorea
• MRI contra-indications
• major neurological/psychiatric comorbidity

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 90 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jan Van den Stock

Post-doctoral researcher

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Other Identifiers

S58457

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id