Assessment of Social-emotional Functioning in Neurological Diseases
Condition: Alzheimer Disease; Stroke; Parkinson's Disease; Lewy Body Dementia; Huntington Disease
MeSH terms: Stroke; Parkinson Disease; Alzheimer Disease; Dementia; Huntington Disease; Lewy Body Disease
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Empathy, defined as the ability to understand others emotions, is a fundamental concept in
      social interactions. It is a psychological phenomenon involving various separable components
      : (i) the ability to feel and imagine the emotions, (ii) the ability to adopt the perspective
      of other people. Several neurological diseases with behavioral disorders may lead to impaired
      processing of social and/or emotional informations. These pathologies are likely to induce a
      lack of empathy that may result from impairments at different levels.

      The objective is simply to study how others' emotions are understood and how this allows for
      regulation of personal behavior. This study is being carried out among patients seen for
      various health problems and who can make behavior changes. This study could help to
      understand some neurological diseases and thereby to identify them earlier and/or to better
      differentiate them.
    

Detailed description: 
      Empathy is a fundamental concept in social interactions, whose function is to understand the
      emotions felt by others. According to De Waal (2008), it is a multidimensional concept that
      involves two processes :(i) a system of emotional contagion or affective resonance (the
      unconscious and automatic sharing of the emotion of others) that establishes the emotional
      component of empathy, (ii) the ability to take perspective, that is the ability to imagine
      the subjective world of the other distinguishing oneself from him, forming the cognitive
      component of empathy.

      Several neurological diseases with behavioral disorders may lead to impaired processing of
      social and/or emotional information. These pathologies are likely to induce a lack of empathy
      that may result from impairments at different levels.

      The main objective of this study is to examine empathy in patients suffering from stroke
      (various locations with an emphasis on frontal stroke), Fronto-temporal dementia, Alzheimer
      and Parkinson diseases. The final assessment criterion is the overall score on the scale of
      empathy.

      The patient will firstly receive a medical examination and clinical data are collected (past
      medical history, clinical neurological examination, diagnosis, description of first symptoms,
      course, current treatments)and brain imaging data. After checking inclusion criteria,
      information letter and the consent form will be returned.

      The second visit will consist in neuropsychological assessment: general intellectual
      efficiency, perceptual and visual-constructive abilities, memory, executive and an assessment
      of behavior and mood from questionnaires The third and final visit will allow passing
      experimental tests. The experimental part will include the following tests: (1) recognition
      of emotional facial expressions; (2) tasks of theory of mind ; (3) task of empathy for pain.

      A control group will also perform the neuropsychological and experimental tests.

      The duration of the study participation for eligible patients and controls will vary
      according to the delay between each visit (medical, neuropsychological and experimental) and
      is lower than 3 months. The study will take place from June 2009 to June 2013.

        -  Number of patients: 320

        -  Number of controls: 400

        -  Potential Benefits expected: criteria for early diagnosis and / or differential
           diagnosis based on the evaluation process of empathy; elaboration of new clinical tools
           assisting diagnosis.
    

Intervention name(s): Computerized tests and Electrophysiological measurements
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Computerized tests: used to evaluate the empathy The participant observes a computer screen on which appears different types of images or words that can evoke an emotion. The participant responds by pressing the screen with his finger. This is a choice between several answers and respond as quickly as possible.
Electrophysiological measurements: provide a measure of autonomic response to emotional stimuli: galvanic response (GSR) and electromyographic activity (EMG) of facial muscles (corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major).
Neuropsychological assessment includes an assessment of intellectual efficiency, perceptual and visual-constructive abilities, memory, executive and an assessment of behavior and mood from questionnaires.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Diagnostic
Keywords: Alzheimer disease; Stroke; Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration; Lewy Body Dementia; Huntington Disease; mild cognitive impairment; vascular injury; Parkinson's disease