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Characterizing the Neural Bases of Motivational Disorders After Stroke

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Stroke
Interventions
Diagnostic Test: Motivation tests
Registration Number
NCT03741140
Lead Sponsor
Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France
Brief Summary

The aim of the study is to quantify elementary mechanisms of motivation, with innovative tools adapted to clinical settings, in healthy subjects, and in stroke patients. The secondary aim of the study is to investigate the neural substrates of motivational mechanisms, and to study the impact of lesions in the grey and the white matter, the influence of lesion site.

Detailed Description

Disorders of motivation, such as apathy, are among the most prevalent symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders and during chronic diseases. They have a major impact on patients' physical activity and lifestyle, and on their involvement in their own care. They affect a wide range of morbidity outcomes, alter functional recovery in rehabilitation, impair long-term disability, and prevent patients from returning to an active and independent life. Yet, the neural bases of motivational deficits remain largely unknown. Current diagnostic tools are sparse and cannot distinguish between distinct mechanisms responsible for apathetic syndromes. Besides, current treatments remain extremely limited. However, recent advances in the field of neuroeconomics - the science of decision-making - have provided concept and tools to study the neurobiological bases of elementary cognitive processes underlying motivated behaviors. These theories suggest that the brain implements optimization processes that determine our behaviors by minimizing the cost of our actions while maximizing their expected benefits. The adaptation of tools developed for basic research now enables the assessment of these cognitive mechanisms.

Elementary deficits of motivation will be assessed with a phenotyping battery of motivation tests in 20 healthy subjects (up to 10 healthy subjects can be replaced), 20 patients (up to 10 patients can be replaced) with a stroke in the medial prefrontal cortex, and 20 patients (up to 10 patients can be replaced) with a stroke in the insula. This battery will allow us to characterize, at the patient's level, elementary processes such as the encoding of goal values or effort costs, the modulation of cost with fatigue, and the resolution of cost-benefit trade-offs. Symptom-Lesion mapping studies and voxel-based morphometry studies will be performed using whole brain MRI measures of structural integrity.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
66
Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
medial frontal strokeMotivation tests20 patients (up to 10 patients can be replaced) with a stroke in the medial frontal lobe will be included in this arm, and will undergo motivation phenotyping.
Healthy participantsMotivation tests20 healthy participants (up to 10 healthy participants can be replaced) will be included in this arm, and will undergo motivation phenotyping.
lateral frontal strokeMotivation tests20 patients (up to 10 patients can be replaced) with a stroke in the lateral frontal lobe will be included in this arm, and will undergo motivation phenotyping.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Reward sensitivity1 day

The reward sensitivity measures the impact of reward values on behavior

Effort sensitivity1 day

The effort sensitivity measures the impact of effort costs on behavior

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Urgences cérébro-vasculaires hopital Pitié-Salpêtrière

🇫🇷

Paris, France

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