RecruitingNCT06566651

Emotion Processing Among Patients With ALS

Emotion and Interoception Processing in ALS

Sponsor

University of Aarhus

Enrollment

180 participants

Start Date

Dec 15, 2023

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Conditions

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ALS Neuromuscular Diseases Motor Neuron Disease MND (Motor Neurone DIsease)

Summary

The goal of this observational study is to learn about the emotional perception in people with ALS disease compared to people with other neuromuscular disease and healthy controls. The main questions it aims to answer are: * How people with ALS judge happy and angry faces and what their "insight" into these judgements are like * How their autonomic responses differ from the other two test group Participants will asked to judge if a face presents a happy emotion or angry emotion. Researchers will compare the ALS group responses with neuromuscular diseases group and healthy control group responses to see if the ALS group judge more happy faces than angry.

Eligibility

Min Age: 18 Years

Inclusion Criteria9

ALS patients, ambulant and hospitalized
Able to give informed consent
Diagnosed with ALS or probable ALS according to the existing revision of the El Escorial Criteria 21,22.
Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, ambulant and hospitalized
Able to give informed consent
Diagnosed with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, that does not affect CNS, including but not limited to Myasthenia Gravis and polyneuropathy
Healthy controls
Able to give informed consent
Age and gender matched to ALS patients

Exclusion Criteria10

All Participants
Other severe medical, neurological, or psychiatric disorders
Visual impairment to an extent that interferes with the ability to perform of the test
Severe motor or cognitive deficits, to the extent that the test-task cannot be performed
Alcohol or drug abuse to an extent the interferes with task performance
Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease
● Familial predisposition to ALS
Healthy controls
Familial predisposition to ALS (first degree relatives)
Medical treatment that affects the central nervous system (e.g., antidepressants)

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Interventions

OTHEREmotion Discrimination Task (EDT)

It estimates the subjective bias and sensitivity in discriminating between happy and angry facial expressions of different intensities of emotional expression