Hinting Task for Huntington's Disease

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Huntington Disease

• Registration Number: NCT06774443
• Lead Sponsor: University Medical Center Groningen

Brief Summary

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by movement disorders, behavioural disorders and cognitive decline. Especially the behavioural and cognitive symptoms of the disease lead to significant disability and burden for patients as well as caregivers. One of the cognitive domains affected by HD is social cognition. Social cognition is the ability to perceive, interpret and respond correctly to social information. Aspects of social cognition are emotion recognition, perspective taking (Theory of Mind), and emapathy. Social cognition problems can be related to behavioural problems, but to be able to study this relationship, it is important to be able to reliable measure social cognition impairments. There are a few social cognition tests available, but often they are not normd and validated for use in a Dutch neurological population. There is a lack of sensitive, simple, tests for measuring Theory of Mind in patients with HD. A promising test, that already has been proven valid in a psychiatric population, is the Hinting Task. The Hinting Task measures theory of mind through indirect speech, The Hinting task is a social cognition test, where hints are implicitly given in speech, which resembles what patients and caregivers frequently report as difficult in HD. The Hinting Task has already been translated into Dutch and is already being used in clinical parctice, but its sensitivity has not been studied yet in a neurological population. The aim of this study is to assess if the Hinting Task is sensitive in patients with HD and to relate the Hinting Task to other (social) cognitive measures, demographical characteristics and disease characteristics.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Study First Submitted: 2024-12-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-01-08
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-01-08
• Study First Posted: 2025-01-14
• Last Update Posted: 2025-01-14
• Study Start: 2025-02-24
• Primary Completion: 2026-12-31
• Study Completion: 2026-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 52

Inclusion Criteria

• Confirmed diagnosis of Huntington's disease via CAG-repeat length analysis
• Between 18 and 74 years of age
• Dutch speaking

Exclusion Criteria

• Presence of serious psychiatric disorders or other neurological comorbidities

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Performance on the Hinting Task	2025-2026	Performance on the Hinting Task by patients with Huntington's disease compared to healthy controls

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Relations of the Hinting Task with other variables	2025-2026	Relationship of the Hinting Task with other (social) cognitive tests, disease characteristics and demographical characteristics

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University Medical Center Groningen; 🇳🇱 Groningen, Netherlands