Memory and Social Interactions: Study in Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Progressive Aphasia

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Observational
SUMMARY

Memory and social interaction are intimately linked. On the one hand, social interaction is a privileged context for learning, and on the other hand, appropriate social interactions involve remembering the partners encountered and previous exchanges. People with Alzheimer's disease classic syndrome variant (AD) have a major impairment of episodic memory, while people with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (SPPA) are characterized by semantic disorders in the foreground, associated with changes in their social behavior with a tendency to egocentricity. In both cases, patients frequently have reduced social interactions. Although social interaction situations seem to constitute a privileged learning context, their effectiveness for patients with cognitive disorders must be evaluated and the conditions under which they are effective must be established. The main objective of this study is to determine whether social interaction constitutes a beneficial context for learning new information and whether the presence of social behavior disorders alters this benefit. More broadly, the goal is to better understand the mechanisms underlying the possible beneficial effect of learning in social contexts and to clarify the links between memory performance in different social contexts, cognitive disorders, social behavioral changes and personality traits. Finally, a description will be made of the brain substrates associated with memory performance obtained during learning in social contexts in order to investigate their particularities. Thirty couples each including a person with AD, 16 couples each including a person with SPPA and 46 couples of persons without cognitive complaints (HC), one of which will be matched in gender and age to one of the patients, will be included in the study. Participants will perform image location learning in a grid, in three social contexts in which both members of the couple are involved: 1) simple presence of others, 2) by observation and 3) in collaboration. A psychometric assessment including social cognition and classical tests assessing memory, and questionnaires concerning global executive functioning, social behavior and personality will be offered to all participants. Patients in the AD and SPPA groups and the matched individual in the HC group will undergo anatomical and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 18
Maximum Age: 85
Healthy Volunteers: t
View:

• AD group: Age between 50 and 85 years, Diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease dementia with amnestic presentation and documented decline following the recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease.

• SPPA group: Age between 50 and 85 years, Diagnosis of the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia following the classification of primary progressive aphasia and its variants.

• HC group: Age between 50 and 85 years, Matched in age and sociocultural status with one of the AD or SPPA patients, No cognitive complain, No recent reduction in social or cognitive activities, No contraindication to MRI examination.

• Partners: Age over 18 years of age , No cognitive complaints, Social interactions of at least two hours per week for at least 5 years with one of the individuals of the other three groups.

Locations
Other Locations
France
Caen University Hospital
RECRUITING
Caen
Contact Information
Primary
Olivier MARTINAUD, MD, PhD
martinaud-o@chu-caen.fr
33 2 31 06 46 17
Backup
Mickaël LAISNEY, PhD
mickael.laisney@ephe.sorbonne.fr
33 2 31 56 83 93
Time Frame
Start Date: 2023-03-10
Estimated Completion Date: 2026-12-31
Participants
Target number of participants: 192
Treatments
AD group
30 individuals aged between 50 and 85 years with probable Alzheimer's disease dementia with amnestic presentation and documented decline following the recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease.
SPPA group
16 individuals aged between 50 and 85 years with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia following the classification of primary progressive aphasia and its variants.
HC group
46 individuals without cognitive complain.
Partners
92 individuals without cognitive complaints. Each of these individuals will partner with one of the members of the experimental groups to carry out learning in social contexts.
Sponsors
Leads: University Hospital, Caen
Collaborators: Rennes University Hospital, University Hospital, Rouen

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov