Lack of Decision-making in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease : Functions Involved and the Daily Consequences

NCT ID: NCT03991624

Last Updated: 2025-04-29

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

180 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-09-27

Study Completion Date

2025-10-31

Brief Summary

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Early in its development, Alzheimer's disease causes not only brain damage affecting different regions of the brain, such as the entorhinal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the prefrontal lobe, but also a cognitive deficit affecting several functions, such as episodic memory, executive functions, or working memory. Although these different areas and functions are involved in the decision-making process, few studies have focused their research on this subject in the context of Alzheimer's disease. However, a 2008 study showed an early decline in decision-making skills in the disease, but did not link this deficit to cognitive impairment. In addition, decision-making is generally assessed using a test called the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which, despite its many advantages, does not have established ecological validity.

In the context of pathology, however, it seems essential to evaluate decision-making in relation to daily life, especially since a deficit in this process would have considerable repercussions on quality of life.

In this study, the investigators seek to better define the disorder by decision-making in early Alzheimer's disease, to understand the links between them with the deficit of other cognitive functions, and to highlight the the consequences that this decline has on patients' daily lives.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Alzheimer Disease

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

OTHER

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Alzheimer's patients (lack of executive functions)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

Inhibition evaluation

Intervention Type OTHER

* Stroop Victoria : This test consists of 3 sheets of 24 items, organized in 6 lines of 4 (points, neutral words or names of colours), from which the subject must identify the ink of the stimuli as quickly and precisely as possible.
* Stop Signal task on the computer to give a response to the presentation of a target stimulus (Go signal) (e.g. pressing a button when a red circle appears on the screen, but doing nothing when a blue triangle appears), and prevent this response when the stimulus is followed or preceded by a beep (stop signal) (e.g. the appearance of a red circle is immediately preceded or followed by a beep, the subject should not press the button).

Assessment of mental flexibility

Intervention Type OTHER

* a letter-number pair task. The subject sees 4 blocks of 48 letter-number pairs appear successively on a screen. When the pair appears at the top, the subject must make a parity judgment but when the pair appears at the bottom, the subject must make a consonant / vowel judgment.
* a category change task, which consists in classifying a word according to one category or another according to a visual clue that appears. The task consists of 4 blocks of 48 stimuli.

Evaluation of the update

Intervention Type OTHER

* an update span task for which letters appear on a screen sequentially, and subjects must memorize the last three, without knowing the length of the list. The task will consist of 3 tests of training and then 20 tests. After three errors consecutive, the task ends.
* an n-back task that consists of a sequential presentation of letters, during which the subject must indicate when the stimulus. The task consists of 3 levels, with n = 1, n= 2 or n = 3. For level 1 (with n = 1), the subject must press a button when the same letter appears twice in a row on the screen. This task consists of 75 letters.

control (lack of executive functions)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

Inhibition evaluation

Intervention Type OTHER

* Stroop Victoria : This test consists of 3 sheets of 24 items, organized in 6 lines of 4 (points, neutral words or names of colours), from which the subject must identify the ink of the stimuli as quickly and precisely as possible.
* Stop Signal task on the computer to give a response to the presentation of a target stimulus (Go signal) (e.g. pressing a button when a red circle appears on the screen, but doing nothing when a blue triangle appears), and prevent this response when the stimulus is followed or preceded by a beep (stop signal) (e.g. the appearance of a red circle is immediately preceded or followed by a beep, the subject should not press the button).

Assessment of mental flexibility

Intervention Type OTHER

* a letter-number pair task. The subject sees 4 blocks of 48 letter-number pairs appear successively on a screen. When the pair appears at the top, the subject must make a parity judgment but when the pair appears at the bottom, the subject must make a consonant / vowel judgment.
* a category change task, which consists in classifying a word according to one category or another according to a visual clue that appears. The task consists of 4 blocks of 48 stimuli.

Evaluation of the update

Intervention Type OTHER

* an update span task for which letters appear on a screen sequentially, and subjects must memorize the last three, without knowing the length of the list. The task will consist of 3 tests of training and then 20 tests. After three errors consecutive, the task ends.
* an n-back task that consists of a sequential presentation of letters, during which the subject must indicate when the stimulus. The task consists of 3 levels, with n = 1, n= 2 or n = 3. For level 1 (with n = 1), the subject must press a button when the same letter appears twice in a row on the screen. This task consists of 75 letters.

Alzheimer's patients (lack of working memory)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

working memory

Intervention Type OTHER

* the empan baba task, which mainly involves maintaining information, and which consists in retaining a series of letters, appearing sequentially on a screen, and whose latency time between two word presentations is required for a secondary task: the repetition of baba syllables.
* the task of reading operations which consists in recalling operations series of letters whose presentation is interspersed with the reading aloud of simple operations and of their results.
* the ongoing operational task of recalling a list of letters, the presentation of which is interspersed with operations that are simple to read aloud and to to solve head-on.

control (lack of working memory)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

working memory

Intervention Type OTHER

* the empan baba task, which mainly involves maintaining information, and which consists in retaining a series of letters, appearing sequentially on a screen, and whose latency time between two word presentations is required for a secondary task: the repetition of baba syllables.
* the task of reading operations which consists in recalling operations series of letters whose presentation is interspersed with the reading aloud of simple operations and of their results.
* the ongoing operational task of recalling a list of letters, the presentation of which is interspersed with operations that are simple to read aloud and to to solve head-on.

Alzheimer's patients (lack of episodic memory)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

episodic memory

Intervention Type OTHER

\- A recognition task with a Remember/Know paradigm

control (lack of episodic memory)

Group Type OTHER

cognitive assessment

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

episodic memory

Intervention Type OTHER

\- A recognition task with a Remember/Know paradigm

Interventions

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cognitive assessment

* MMSE : Mini-Mental State Examination
* 5 words of Dubois
* Direct Assessment of Functional Status
* Trail Making Test
* BREF : Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* short battery of praxies
* Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Inhibition evaluation

* Stroop Victoria : This test consists of 3 sheets of 24 items, organized in 6 lines of 4 (points, neutral words or names of colours), from which the subject must identify the ink of the stimuli as quickly and precisely as possible.
* Stop Signal task on the computer to give a response to the presentation of a target stimulus (Go signal) (e.g. pressing a button when a red circle appears on the screen, but doing nothing when a blue triangle appears), and prevent this response when the stimulus is followed or preceded by a beep (stop signal) (e.g. the appearance of a red circle is immediately preceded or followed by a beep, the subject should not press the button).

Intervention Type OTHER

Assessment of mental flexibility

* a letter-number pair task. The subject sees 4 blocks of 48 letter-number pairs appear successively on a screen. When the pair appears at the top, the subject must make a parity judgment but when the pair appears at the bottom, the subject must make a consonant / vowel judgment.
* a category change task, which consists in classifying a word according to one category or another according to a visual clue that appears. The task consists of 4 blocks of 48 stimuli.

Intervention Type OTHER

Evaluation of the update

* an update span task for which letters appear on a screen sequentially, and subjects must memorize the last three, without knowing the length of the list. The task will consist of 3 tests of training and then 20 tests. After three errors consecutive, the task ends.
* an n-back task that consists of a sequential presentation of letters, during which the subject must indicate when the stimulus. The task consists of 3 levels, with n = 1, n= 2 or n = 3. For level 1 (with n = 1), the subject must press a button when the same letter appears twice in a row on the screen. This task consists of 75 letters.

Intervention Type OTHER

working memory

* the empan baba task, which mainly involves maintaining information, and which consists in retaining a series of letters, appearing sequentially on a screen, and whose latency time between two word presentations is required for a secondary task: the repetition of baba syllables.
* the task of reading operations which consists in recalling operations series of letters whose presentation is interspersed with the reading aloud of simple operations and of their results.
* the ongoing operational task of recalling a list of letters, the presentation of which is interspersed with operations that are simple to read aloud and to to solve head-on.

Intervention Type OTHER

episodic memory

\- A recognition task with a Remember/Know paradigm

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Mini-Mental State Examination \> 23
* stable treatment for at least two months
* mother tongue : French


* general cognitive level in the standard on the following tests : Mini-Mental State Examination and Fast Front End Efficiency Battery
* mother tongue : French

Exclusion Criteria

* game addiction
* uncorrected visual and hearing disorders
* other neurological or psychiatric history
* inability to communicate
* delusional or psychotic state


* game addiction
* psychiatric or neurological disorders
* anxiety and depression symptomatology
Minimum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Céline BORG

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

CHU de Saint Etienne

Locations

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Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs

Bron, , France

Site Status RECRUITING

Hôpital Lariboisière- Fernand Widal

Paris, , France

Site Status NOT_YET_RECRUITING

CHU de Saint Etienne

Saint-Etienne, , France

Site Status RECRUITING

CMRR - Hôpital Charpennes

Villeurbanne, , France

Site Status NOT_YET_RECRUITING

Countries

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France

Central Contacts

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Céline BORG

Role: CONTACT

04 77 82 88 82

Facility Contacts

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Hanna Chainay

Role: primary

04 78 77 43 52

Claire PAQUET

Role: primary

Céline BORG

Role: primary

04 77 82 88 82

Isabelle ROUCH, MD

Role: primary

(0)472432050 ext. +33

Other Identifiers

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2019-A00174-53

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

18CH237

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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