RecruitingNCT07531732

Links Between Self-awareness and Sociocognitive Processes in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Study of the Links Between Self-awareness and Sociocognitive Processes in Neurodegenerative Diseases in People With Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Behavioral Variant and Alzheimer's Disease

Sponsor

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Enrollment

34 participants

Start Date

Apr 1, 2026

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Conditions

Alzheimer Disease Frontotemporal Dementia, Behavioral Variant

Summary

This monocentric, non-interventional study (SELFSOC) investigates the relationship between self-awareness and social cognition in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The primary objective is to assess metacognitive efficiency related to social cognitive performance using a computerized facial emotion recognition task combined with confidence judgments. Metacognitive indices (including Mratio) will quantify the correspondence between subjective and objective performance. Thirty-four participants (17 bvFTD, 17 AD; age 50-80; MMSE ≥20) will complete two study visits involving tasks assessing emotion recognition, theory of mind, and memory.

Eligibility

Min Age: 50 YearsMax Age: 80 Years

Inclusion Criteria5

Diagnosis of possible or probable behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia according to the Rascovsky 2011 criteria (DLFTvc group) OR
Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease according to the Jack 2018 criteria, including biomarkers (MA group)
Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) ≥ 20
Age: 50-80 years
Sufficient reading and writing proficiency in French to enable completion of the study procedures, in the investigator's opinion

Exclusion Criteria5

Moderate to severe language disorders: Confrontation naming (DO 40 scale) ≤ 32
Inability to perform computerized tasks according to the investigator's opinion
Other neurological disorders (including epilepsy, Lewy body disease, vascular dementia)
Psychiatric comorbidities (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, current major depressive episode)
Uncorrected visual impairment

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Interventions

BEHAVIORALComputer-based facial expression recognition task

Eighteen facial photographs from the FACES database (Ebner et al., 2010) were selected, each depicting one of six emotions: joy, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and neutral. For each face, the patient must identify the emotion being expressed by choosing from six verbal labels displayed on the screen.

BEHAVIORALComputerized affective task

The task consists of 32 silent black-and-white videos featuring two characters interacting in a social situation, adapted from the Pierre and Marie task (Caillaud et al., 2020). Each video lasts between 8 and 9 seconds and shows one of the two characters experiencing a specific emotion. Patients will be asked to infer the emotion felt by that character. The emotions depicted are either positive or negative and vary in complexity: embarrassment, pride, anger, and surprise (8 videos for each emotion). After each video, the name of an emotion will appear on the screen, and patients will be asked to indicate whether the displayed emotion matches the one felt by the protagonist (half of the options will be congruent and the other half incongruent). The measured variable will be the rate of correct responses.

BEHAVIORALUCLA Structured Insight Interview

The UCLA Structured Insight Interview (Mendez \& Shapira, 2011), translated into French, will be used to quantify anosognosia. This is a structured interview, conducted by the investigator, designed to assess patients' awareness of their symptoms in cases of neurodegenerative disease.

BEHAVIORALBarber's Standardized Suggestibility Scale

The participant, who must keep their eyes closed throughout the administration of the scale, receives a standardized series of suggestions read aloud by the experimenter in a specific order. These suggestions pertain to motor, sensory, verbal, and mnemonic responses (lowering or raising the arm, clenching the hands, feeling thirsty, speech inhibition, immobility, post-hypnotic response, and amnesia).The scale consists of 8 items and is therefore scored on a scale of 0 to 8 : minimum score 0/8 = no suggestibility; maximum score 8/8 = maximum suggestibility.