Self-awareness and social understanding in behavioral frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease
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
This project sees if people with bvFTD or Alzheimer's can accurately judge their own emotion-recognition and social-cognitive performance using a computerized face-emotion task with confidence ratings.
Quick facts
| Study type | Observational |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | 34 (estimated) |
| Ages | 50 Years to 80 Years |
| Sex | All |
| Sponsor | Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris Academic / other |
| Locations | 1 site (Paris) |
| Trial ID | NCT07531732 on ClinicalTrials.gov |
What this trial studies
This monocentric, non-interventional study enrolls 34 participants (17 with behavioral-variant FTD and 17 with Alzheimer's disease) aged 50–80 with MMSE ≥20. Participants complete two ~2-hour visits including a computerized facial emotion recognition task with trial-by-trial retrospective confidence judgments to compute metacognitive efficiency (Mratio), alongside tasks probing theory of mind, memory, and suggestibility. Secondary analyses compare prospective and global metacognitive judgments, task complexity and feedback effects, and relationships with anosognosia. The aim is to characterize how subjective self-awareness aligns with objective social-cognitive performance across diagnostic groups.
Who should consider this trial
Good fit: Adults aged 50–80 with a diagnosis of behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (Rascovsky 2011) or Alzheimer's disease with biomarker support (Jack 2018), MMSE ≥20, and sufficient French reading/writing ability are ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People with moderate-to-severe language impairment, other neurological disorders (e.g., Lewy body disease, vascular dementia, epilepsy), major psychiatric illness, uncorrected vision problems, or inability to perform computerized tasks are unlikely to benefit from participation.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could help clinicians identify metacognitive deficits that harm social functioning and inform more targeted support or intervention strategies.
How similar studies have performed: Metacognitive methods using confidence ratings and indices like Mratio have been applied successfully in other cognitive and psychiatric populations and in some dementia work, but their use specifically on social-cognitive tasks comparing bvFTD and AD is relatively novel.
Eligibility criteria
Show full inclusion / exclusion criteria
Inclusion Criteria: * 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 Criteria: * 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
Where this trial is running
Paris
- Cognitive Neurology Center, Lariboisière-Fernand Widal Hospital Group, APHP — Paris, France (Recruiting)
Study contacts
- Study coordinator: Emmanuel Cognat, MD PhD
- Email: emmanuel.cognat@aphp.fr
- Phone: +33 (0) 1 40 05 49 54
How to participate
- Review the eligibility criteria above with your treating physician.
- Visit the official trial page on ClinicalTrials.gov for the most current contact information and recruitment status.
- Contact the listed study coordinator or principal investigator to request pre-screening. Pre-screening is free and never obligates you to enroll.