View clinical trials related to Social Cognition.
Filter by:The study of higher cognitive functions (learning, memory, language, reasoning, decision making) in humans constitutes an interdisciplinary field, which combines neurobiological and neurological, neuropsychological, as well as linguistic and artificial intelligence skills. Historically, the study of patients with cerebrovascular lesions or brain pathologies associated with primary and/or cognitive deficits has produced fundamental knowledge in this area. The development of modern non-invasive investigation techniques of the human brain - such as Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Positron emission (PET), the study of event-related electrophysiological potentials (ERP) or magneto-encephalography (MEG) - has made it possible to carry out similar studies on healthy subjects, as well as the in-vivo analysis of adaptive and plastic mechanisms of the human brain. Recently, the interest of cognitive neuroscience - this is the name taken by this vast interdisciplinary sector which aims to understand the neural mechanisms underlying human cognitive processes - has been oriented towards the study of decision making in social contexts. Knowledge of the mechanisms underlying these processes is fundamental for the most complete description of the biological bases of human behavior and above all for the optimal development of treatments for brain pathologies, whether surgical, pharmacological or rehabilitation in general.
The facial emotion recognition is a basic social skill for successful social interactions. Several meta-analyses and recent studies found impairments of the perception of facial emotions in patients with euthymic bipolar disorder. Few studies compared recognition of facial emotions impairments during euthymia in patients with bipolar disorder type 1 and 2. These studies included low population samples (N<60). There were discrepancies in results of these studies. Szanto suggested that facial emotion recognition impairments were correlated with suicidal risk and social isolation. These impairments should be taking into account regarding psycho-social treatments in patients with bipolar disorder. This study aims to evaluate facial emotion recognition in patients with bipolar I and II disorders compared to healthy controls, using the facial emotion recognition test (TREF). The objective of the present study is to compare TREF scores in a group of patients with bipolar 1, a group of patients with bipolar 2 disorder and a group with healthy controls. In addition, the investigators will investigate the relationships between TREF scores and levels of self-esteem and mental well-being.
Randomized controlled trial. Sixty-five participants (83% with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) were recruited from community mental health teams. Fifty-seven met criteria and agreed to participate in the study. The conditions of cognitive rehabilitation were assigned randomly with support employment CR + IPS (n = 28) and IPS alone (n = 29). Cogpack program was used. Two groups were followed at 8 and 12 months after the baseline.
Antipsychotic medication shows generally good effect sizes when looking at reduction of positive psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, such as paranoia or delusion. However, social functioning often remains deficient in patients, meaning dopamine-receptor antagonists are not sufficient in treatment of people with schizophrenia. A naturalistic video-based paradigm, named MASC has been used in the past to model over- and undermentalizing in patients with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, since deficits in mentalizing can be explained by either overinterpreting a social situation (e.g. paranoid thoughts about intentions of others towards self) or by lacking the skill to read intentions of others. To find out whether experimental manipulation via a non-competetive N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist can induce difficulties with social cognition similar to those observed in people with schizophrenia, the investigators will conduct a RCT applying either ketamine or a placebo intravenously while participants are completing the above mentioned mentalizing task in the fMRI-scanner.
The aim of the study is to explore the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on either the right tempo-parietal junction (rTPJ) or the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in healthy older adults (replication in a different sample of a study by Martin et al., 2020).
REMEDRUGBY's objective is to strengthen the capacity of users to interact with others in an assertive way and to fight against stigma. It proposes to specifically target the processes of "social cognition". "Social cognition" brings together the mental mechanisms that allow everyone to decipher the social situations, emotions and intentions of others and interact with others in the different contexts of everyday life. People with a psychic handicap frequently have difficulties in this area, which has often important consequences for their social and professional integration. The REMEDRUGBY program proposes to work specifically on these processes in the context of sport (+ role Play and blog) to strengthen the ability to interact with others and to deal with the stigma that can be encountered on a daily basis.
Goal of the current project is the development of a German-language test battery for a realistic investigation of core areas of social issues Cognition (emotion, perspective taking). This test battery should be used in the investigation of patients with neuropsychological disorders. Investigators plan to establish a German-version of the TASIT that is more sensitive and shorter in administration than the original TASIT.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) progressively leads to an increasing level of disability. That's why individuals faced with this chronic disease whose progression is unpredictable have to mobilize all their available resources. As a result, management of interpersonal relationships appears to be a key issue in adjustment to situations. Although knowledge on cognitive abnormalities in MS has been growing in recent years, there is a lack of research about social behaviour regulation skills. The few studies conducted in this field are mainly interested in emotional processing (emotional facial recognition and empathy) and skills mentalizing (theory of mind) that appear disturbed in MS. While some recent studies touch on the issue of the contextual analysis of language (that is to say, the social use of language) in MS, their assessment on a wide range of pragamtic skills has never been studied. However, the pragmatic aspects of language are known to play a major role in social adjustment. This project has three main objectives : (1) to increase general knowledge of deficits in communication and in social cognition in patients with MS, (2) to propose new leads for the evaluation of these disorders and (3) to contribute to increasing knowledge of neural basis of communication and social cognition. In order to address those objectives, the assessment will be focused on many various pragmatics skills : conversation, indirect language comprehension (indirect questions, idiomatic expressions, sarcasm) and metapragmatic knowledge in a population of 40 RR-MS patients. Those patients' performances will be compared to a group of healthy matched control subjects, potential relationships between pragmatic abilities, other aspects of social cognition (theory of mind and processing of emotional stimuli), cognitive functioning, psycho-behavioural aspects and the characteristics of the disease will be explore. Social cognition tasks have been selected for their dynamic and ecologic aspects in order to match natural social interaction. Finally, communication consideration, cognitive and cerebral skills of patients with MS will contribute to increasing knowledge of the neural basis of social cognition.
In this study, investigators will examine the behavioral effects and neurophysiological mechanisms of the pro-social neuropeptide oxytocin in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. Such research is a necessary first step towards identifying whether intranasal oxytocin administration can serve as an adjunct treatment for social impairments in schizophrenia. Aim 1: To quantify the effects of exogenous oxytocin on social cognition and behavior in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. Hypothesis A: Patients and healthy comparison subjects will show enhanced social cognition (e.g., improved interpretation of paralinguistic and emotional cues, such as those involved in emotional or sarcastic communication) after administration of oxytocin versus placebo. Hypothesis B: Patients and healthy comparison subjects will show increased attention to others' eyes and patients will exhibit increased facial affect expressivity after administration of oxytocin versus placebo. Aim 2: To examine the effects of exogenous oxytocin on persistent negative symptoms in schizophrenia (PNS) activity in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. Hypothesis A: Patients and healthy comparison subjects will demonstrate increased PNS activity during social tasks after administration of oxytocin versus placebo. Hypothesis B (exploratory): Patients and healthy comparison subjects' improvements in social cognition and behavior will be predicted by the degree to which oxytocin increases their PNS activity.
The specific aim of this proposal is to investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms of oxytocin's (OT) prosocial effects in patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects using magnetoencephalography. Hypothesis A: When OT is administered to patients with schizophrenia, fear-related amygdala hyperreactivity and fusiform gyrus (FG) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) hypoactivity will be normalized. Hypothesis B: When OT is administered to patients with schizophrenia, the decreased functional connectivity (FC) between the amygdala, FG, and ACC will be normalized. By elucidating the neurophysiological mechanisms of OT administration on emotional face processing, investigators will bee able to: 1. understand the pathophysiology of the functionally debilitating social cognitive deficits of schizophrenia, 2. test the efficacy of OT in normalizing the neural abnormalities underlying these social deficits, and 3. develop and optimize novel treatments for these currently untreatable deficits.