Functional Imaging of Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

Huntington's Disease Clinical Trial

— FISCIP  

Official title:

Functional Imaging of Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02551705
• Other study ID #: S58457
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: September 7, 2015
• Last updated: September 14, 2015
• Start date: October 2015
• Est. completion date: October 2017

Study information

• Verified date: September 2015
• Source: Universitaire Ziekenhuizen Leuven
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Belgium: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: October 2017
• Est. primary completion date: October 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 90 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

• visible chorea

• MRI contra-indications

• major neurological/psychiatric comorbidity

Study Design

Allocation: Non-Randomized, Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Investigator), Primary Purpose: Basic Science

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Huntington Disease
• Huntington's Disease

Intervention

Other:
• functional Imaging
Brain responses associated with emotional memory will be investigated

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Universitaire Ziekenhuizen Leuven

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Significant group differences in brain activation for perceiving emotional vs neutral faces by following random effects analyses	Significant group differences in beta-values for the contrast emotional faces vs neutral faces following general linear model parameter estimates	6 months	Yes