Interpersonal Relations, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Functional, Schizophrenia
Conditions
Keywords
Ecological task, fMRI, Schizophrenia, Social Cognition
Brief summary
An impairment in social cognition in schizophrenia could account for the severe professional and social difficulties among patients. Social cognition is the way the social world is understood, perceived and interpreted. It includes all the process than enable oneself to interact with another person, namely emotion perception and processing, theory of mind (ToM), social perception, social knowledge and attributional style. Since these process are interconnected, social cognition should be investigated through ecological tasks which activate all of them together. Developing a social cognition ecological task, then testing the reproducibility of the functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) BOLD signal is the main objective of this study. The secondary objective is to seek a functional deficit among the neural network of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy subjects. Forty healthy subjects, aged from 18 to 60 years old, who have given a written consent, will be included. The social cognition paradigm will be developed and the fMRI activations will be compared to those of a visual cartoon based task, known to turn on the neural network of ToM. BOLD signal variations at a high statistical correction ratio (p\<0.05) will be explored and compared to the signal of a second fMRI, made on the same 20 healthy subjects one month later, to test reproducibility (% of identical activated voxels during the 2 fMRI, p\<0.05). Twenty matched patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV-R), aged from 18 to 60 will be included to test the secondary objective. We make the hypothesis of a fMRI functional alteration in the cerebral network involved in social cognition, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex, among patients compared with healthy subjects.
Detailed description
Social cognition neural basis. Impairment of the social brain in schizophrenia
Interventions
OTHERfMRI social cognition task
fMRI social cognition task : each subject will go through 3 runs of a fMRI paradigm, first one verbal then two visual runs, which are meant to activate the theory of mind network.
Sponsors
University Hospital, Caen
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 60 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Subjects aged from 18 to 60 years old * who have signed a consent and, if there is one, whose legal representant has signed a consent 1)For healthy subjects: * without any psychiatric affection (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) 2)For patients * meeting the DSM-IV-R criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
Exclusion criteria
* pregnant woman * neurological affection * medical objection to Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Developing a social cognition ecological task, then testing the reproducibility of the functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) BOLD signal | Day 1 for individual analysis. Up to 24 months for group analysis. | The social cognition paradigm will be developed and the fMRI activations will be compared to those of a visual cartoon based task, known to turn on the neural network of ToM. BOLD signal variations at a high statistical correction ratio (p\<0.05) will be explored and compared to the signal of a second fMRI, made on the same 20 healthy subjects one month later, to test reproducibility (% of identical activated voxels during the 2 fMRI, p\<0.05) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Identifying a functional deficit among the neural network of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy subjects. | Day 1 for individual analysis. Up to 24 months for group analysis. | Using the previous social cognition ecological task, BOLD signal variations at a high statistical correction ratio (p\<0.05) of 20 patients with schizophrenia will be compared to those of 20 matched healthy subjects. |
Countries
France
Outcome results
None listed