Functional Imaging of Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease (FISCIP)

Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Huntington's Disease

Treatments: Other: functional Imaging

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02551705

S58457

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 90 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

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

Exclusion criteria

• visible chorea
• MRI contra-indications
• major neurological/psychiatric comorbidity

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

functional Imaging mutation carrier

Experimental group

Description:

Premanifest mutation carrier, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing

Treatment:

Other: functional Imaging

functional Imaging non-carrier

Active Comparator group

Description:

non-carrier family member, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing

Treatment:

Other: functional Imaging