Exploration of Neural Bases in Social Cognition (IRM-COG)

Caen University Hospital

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Schizophrenia; Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Functional; Interpersonal Relations

Treatments: Other: fMRI social cognition task

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02110017

RCB 2013-A00064-41

Details and patient eligibility

About

An impairment in social cognition in schizophrenia could account for the severe professional and social difficulties among patients. Social cognition is the way the social world is understood, perceived and interpreted. It includes all the process than enable oneself to interact with another person, namely emotion perception and processing, theory of mind (ToM), social perception, social knowledge and attributional style. Since these process are interconnected, social cognition should be investigated through ecological tasks which activate all of them together. Developing a social cognition ecological task, then testing the reproducibility of the functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) BOLD signal is the main objective of this study. The secondary objective is to seek a functional deficit among the neural network of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy subjects.

Forty healthy subjects, aged from 18 to 60 years old, who have given a written consent, will be included. The social cognition paradigm will be developed and the fMRI activations will be compared to those of a visual cartoon based task, known to turn on the neural network of ToM. BOLD signal variations at a high statistical correction ratio (p<0.05) will be explored and compared to the signal of a second fMRI, made on the same 20 healthy subjects one month later, to test reproducibility (% of identical activated voxels during the 2 fMRI, p<0.05).

Twenty matched patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV-R), aged from 18 to 60 will be included to test the secondary objective. We make the hypothesis of a fMRI functional alteration in the cerebral network involved in social cognition, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex, among patients compared with healthy subjects.

Full description

Social cognition neural basis. Impairment of the "social brain" in schizophrenia

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects aged from 18 to 60 years old

• who have signed a consent and, if there is one, whose legal representant has signed a consent

  1)For healthy subjects:

• without any psychiatric affection (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview)

  2)For patients

• meeting the DSM-IV-R criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder

Exclusion criteria

• pregnant woman
• neurological affection
• medical objection to Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

Patients with schizophrenia

Other group

Description:

Twenty patients suffering from schizophrenia (DSM-IV-R), with medication and medical care. No recent relapse of the psychotic disease, nor change in medications. No neurological comorbidity. After anatomic scans, each subject will go through the fMRI social cognition task.

Treatment:

Other: fMRI social cognition task

Healthy subjects

Other group

Description:

Twenty healthy subjects (no mental or neurological disease) After anatomic scans, each subject will go through the fMRI social cognition task.

Treatment:

Other: fMRI social cognition task