Study Results
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Basic Information
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RECRUITING
180 participants
OBSERVATIONAL
2023-12-15
2026-06-30
Brief Summary
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* How people with ALS judge happy and angry faces and what their "insight" into these judgements are like
* How their autonomic responses differ from the other two test group Participants will asked to judge if a face presents a happy emotion or angry emotion.
Researchers will compare the ALS group responses with neuromuscular diseases group and healthy control group responses to see if the ALS group judge more happy faces than angry.
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Detailed Description
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The aim of this project is to investigate emotional perception in ALS patients compared to healthy controls and patients with other neuromuscular diseases that do not affect the central nervous system. We use a simple emotion discrimination task to evaluate emotional bias and metacognition of emotion discrimination. Moreover, this project aims to explore the correlation between emotion perception and autonomic reactivity in ALS patients by recording heart rate frequency and respiration frequency during the EDT.
The project will contribute with deeper insights to the neuropsychological changes in ALS patients and the opportunity to quantify these changes. Thereby, the project will add new perspectives to the discussion of how we evaluate socio-emotional aspects of ALS in both clinical decision-making, guidance of relatives and future research.
Conditions
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Study Design
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CASE_CONTROL
CROSS_SECTIONAL
Study Groups
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
People diagnosed or suspected of having the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Emotion Discrimination Task (EDT)
It estimates the subjective bias and sensitivity in discriminating between happy and angry facial expressions of different intensities of emotional expression
Neuromuscular
People diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease other than ALS
Emotion Discrimination Task (EDT)
It estimates the subjective bias and sensitivity in discriminating between happy and angry facial expressions of different intensities of emotional expression
Control
Healthy people
Emotion Discrimination Task (EDT)
It estimates the subjective bias and sensitivity in discriminating between happy and angry facial expressions of different intensities of emotional expression
Interventions
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Emotion Discrimination Task (EDT)
It estimates the subjective bias and sensitivity in discriminating between happy and angry facial expressions of different intensities of emotional expression
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* Able to give informed consent
* Diagnosed with ALS or probable ALS according to the existing revision of the El Escorial Criteria 21,22.
* Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, ambulant and hospitalized
* Able to give informed consent
* Diagnosed with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, that does not affect CNS, including but not limited to Myasthenia Gravis and polyneuropathy
* Healthy controls
* Able to give informed consent
* Age and gender matched to ALS patients
Exclusion Criteria
* Other severe medical, neurological, or psychiatric disorders
* Visual impairment to an extent that interferes with the ability to perform of the test
* Severe motor or cognitive deficits, to the extent that the test-task cannot be performed
* Alcohol or drug abuse to an extent the interferes with task performance
* Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease
● Familial predisposition to ALS
* Healthy controls
* Familial predisposition to ALS (first degree relatives)
* Medical treatment that affects the central nervous system (e.g., antidepressants)
18 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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Aarhus University Hospital
OTHER
Aalborg University Hospital
OTHER
University of Aarhus
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Mia Heintzelmann
Ph.d. fellow
Principal Investigators
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Mia B Heintzelmann, Cand.med
Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital
Locations
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Aarhus University Hospital
Aarhus, Central Jutland, Denmark
Aalborg University Hospital
Aalborg, Region Nordjulland, Denmark
Countries
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Central Contacts
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Facility Contacts
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References
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Sedda A. Disorders of emotional processing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Curr Opin Neurol. 2014 Dec;27(6):659-65. doi: 10.1097/WCO.0000000000000147.
Strong MJ, Abrahams S, Goldstein LH, Woolley S, Mclaughlin P, Snowden J, Mioshi E, Roberts-South A, Benatar M, HortobaGyi T, Rosenfeld J, Silani V, Ince PG, Turner MR. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - frontotemporal spectrum disorder (ALS-FTSD): Revised diagnostic criteria. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2017 May;18(3-4):153-174. doi: 10.1080/21678421.2016.1267768. Epub 2017 Jan 5.
Strong MJ, Yang W. The frontotemporal syndromes of ALS. Clinicopathological correlates. J Mol Neurosci. 2011 Nov;45(3):648-55. doi: 10.1007/s12031-011-9609-0. Epub 2011 Aug 2.
Bora E. Meta-analysis of social cognition in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Cortex. 2017 Mar;88:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.11.012. Epub 2016 Dec 5.
Martins AP, Prado LGR, Lillo P, Mioshi E, Teixeira AL, de Souza LC. Deficits in Emotion Recognition as Markers of Frontal Behavioral Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2019 Spring;31(2):165-169. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.18040086. Epub 2018 Dec 12.
Oh SI, Oh KW, Kim HJ, Park JS, Kim SH. Impaired Perception of Emotional Expression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. J Clin Neurol. 2016 Jul;12(3):295-300. doi: 10.3988/jcn.2016.12.3.295. Epub 2016 Apr 19.
Zimmerman EK, Eslinger PJ, Simmons Z, Barrett AM. Emotional perception deficits in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Cogn Behav Neurol. 2007 Jun;20(2):79-82. doi: 10.1097/WNN.0b013e31804c700b.
Lule D, Kurt A, Jurgens R, Kassubek J, Diekmann V, Kraft E, Neumann N, Ludolph AC, Birbaumer N, Anders S. Emotional responding in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Neurol. 2005 Dec;252(12):1517-24. doi: 10.1007/s00415-005-0907-8. Epub 2005 Jun 24.
Crespi C, Cerami C, Dodich A, Canessa N, Arpone M, Iannaccone S, Corbo M, Lunetta C, Scola E, Falini A, Cappa SF. Microstructural white matter correlates of emotion recognition impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Cortex. 2014 Apr;53:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.01.002. Epub 2014 Jan 18.
Lule D, Diekmann V, Anders S, Kassubek J, Kubler A, Ludolph AC, Birbaumer N. Brain responses to emotional stimuli in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). J Neurol. 2007 Apr;254(4):519-27. doi: 10.1007/s00415-006-0409-3. Epub 2007 Mar 31.
Aho-Ozhan HE, Keller J, Heimrath J, Uttner I, Kassubek J, Birbaumer N, Ludolph AC, Lule D. Perception of Emotional Facial Expressions in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at Behavioural and Brain Metabolic Level. PLoS One. 2016 Oct 14;11(10):e0164655. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164655. eCollection 2016.
Finegan E, Chipika RH, Li Hi Shing S, Hardiman O, Bede P. Pathological Crying and Laughing in Motor Neuron Disease: Pathobiology, Screening, Intervention. Front Neurol. 2019 Mar 21;10:260. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00260. eCollection 2019.
Caga J, Hsieh S, Lillo P, Dudley K, Mioshi E. The Impact of Cognitive and Behavioral Symptoms on ALS Patients and Their Caregivers. Front Neurol. 2019 Mar 11;10:192. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00192. eCollection 2019.
de Wit J, Bakker LA, van Groenestijn AC, van den Berg LH, Schroder CD, Visser-Meily JMA, Beelen A. Caregiver burden in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A systematic review. Palliat Med. 2018 Jan;32(1):231-245. doi: 10.1177/0269216317709965. Epub 2017 Jul 3.
Olney RK, Murphy J, Forshew D, Garwood E, Miller BL, Langmore S, Kohn MA, Lomen-Hoerth C. The effects of executive and behavioral dysfunction on the course of ALS. Neurology. 2005 Dec 13;65(11):1774-7. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000188759.87240.8b.
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Lule D, Ehlich B, Lang D, Sorg S, Heimrath J, Kubler A, Birbaumer N, Ludolph AC. Quality of life in fatal disease: the flawed judgement of the social environment. J Neurol. 2013 Nov;260(11):2836-43. doi: 10.1007/s00415-013-7068-y. Epub 2013 Aug 30.
Garcia-Cordero I, Migeot J, Fittipaldi S, Aquino A, Campo CG, Garcia A, Ibanez A. Metacognition of emotion recognition across neurodegenerative diseases. Cortex. 2021 Apr;137:93-107. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.12.023. Epub 2021 Jan 28.
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Other Identifiers
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emotionperceptionALS11072308
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id
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