Study of Social Behavior and Emotion in Frontotemporal Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease and Controls

• Conditions: Frontotemporal Dementia; Frontotemporal Degeneration; Alzheimer's Disease; Social Behavior

• Registration Number: NCT01147679
• Lead Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles

Brief Summary

This study is designed to document the loss of sociomoral emotions (like empathy, guilt, and embarrassment) in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. The loss of these emotions, which function as the motivators for social behavior, will manifest in specific interpersonal behaviors. These behaviors will correlate with regional changes in regional changes in medial frontal and anterior temporal lobes. These social and emotional changes will be compared with a young-onset Alzheimer's disease comparison group.

Detailed Description

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a devastating disorder and one the most common neurodegenerative diseases in middle age. The most prominent early manifestations of bvFTD ("behavior variant" FTD) are not the memory and other cognitive deficits typical of Alzheimer's disease (AD) but, rather, disturbance in social or interpersonal behavior. A basic manifestation of this disorder is a disturbance in the emotions and motives that drive social and moral behavior. In fact, bvFTD is an incredible window to the neuroscience of social behavior. This study will help clarify the neurobiological substrates of sociomoral emotions and their associated clinical features. The findings of this proposal can have major implications for understanding the interaction between brain and social behavior and for designing future research on the basic mechanisms of social neuroscience. This research aims to document the loss of sociomoral emotions (SME) compared to primary emotions in patients with bvFTD vs. patients with AD and normal controls. We need to show that these findings are specific to bvFTD and not present in Alzheimer's disease or normal controls. The project consists of three integrated parts: 1) behavioral measures that include observations in naturalistic settings, behavioral experiments, and behavioral scales; 2) psychophysiological reactivity (i.e., measures of heart rate, blood pressure changes, galvanic skin response, facial electromyography, and facial temperature) to social and emotional stimuli; and 3) brain localization of changes in sociomoral emotions with magnetic resonance imaging technology.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-01
• Study First Submitted: 2010-06-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-06-18
• Study First Posted: 2010-06-22
• Status Verified: 2011-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2011-10-27
• Last Update Posted: 2011-10-28
• Primary Completion: 2013-09
• Study Completion: 2014-07

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 99

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Psychophysiological Reactivity	within three months of study enrollment	We will evaluate autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) nervous system reactivity to sociomoral vs. non-social stimuli using measures of heart rate (and heart rate variability), blood pressure (and baroreflex sensitivity), finger pulse volume, and skin conductance changes. Investigators present social and non-social pictures, videos, and written scenarios to all three groups while recording these psychophysiologic measures.
Behavioral Reports and Observations	within three months of study enrollment	This proposal will use methods of ethnography to classify the social behavior of bvFTD and AD patients and their caregivers in their homes and during research visits. Four social behavioral experiments or vignettes will be used to cross-validate the results of augmented participant observation. Behavioral scales will record differences between caregiver and patient assessments of behavior and further validate the results of the participant observation.
MRI Brain-Mapping	within three months of study enrollment	An MRI scan evaluated with state-of-the-art techniques will yield three dimensional maps of localized structural changes that reflect the regions involved in mediating social, moral, and emotional behaviors.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

UCLA Department of Neurology; 🇺🇸 Los Angeles, California, United States