Functional Imaging of Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Huntington's Disease
• Interventions: Other: functional Imaging

• Registration Number: NCT02551705
• Lead Sponsor: Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

Brief 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.

Detailed 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.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2015-09
• Study First Submitted: 2015-09-07
• Study First Submitted QC: 2015-09-14
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-09-14
• Study First Posted: 2015-09-16
• Last Update Posted: 2015-09-16
• Study Start: 2015-10
• Primary Completion: 2017-10
• Study Completion: 2017-10

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 40

Inclusion Criteria

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

Exclusion Criteria

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
functional Imaging non-carrier	functional Imaging	non-carrier family member, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing
functional Imaging mutation carrier	functional Imaging	Premanifest mutation carrier, behavioral and neural emotional memory processing

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Significant group differences in brain activation for perceiving emotional vs neutral faces by following random effects analyses	6 months	Significant group differences in beta-values for the contrast emotional faces vs neutral faces following general linear model parameter estimates