Huntington's Disease
Conditions
Brief summary
Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic progressive fatal neurodegenerative disorder. In the western world it affects 5-10 persons per 100000. The main brain changes include the loss of brain cells in subcortical structures. The symptoms of HD include involuntary movements, cognitive deterioration and behavioural disturbances. It has been shown that changes in emotion comprehension occur before the onset of the motor symptoms (preHD). This deficit in perception of emotions has been primarily investigated by means of facial expressions. However, emotions can also be expressed through body language. Here, the investigators propose to investigate whether the emotion comprehension deficit in preHD also includes body language comprehension.
Detailed description
The investigators will perform a detailed evaluation of body language comprehension abilities in persons that carry the genetic mutation causing HD, but who do not show any movement symptoms yet. In addition, the associated changes in brain structure and function will be studied. The aim is to perform the study with the same group of participants who participated in a recent study carried on by this research group, in which the functional brain changes associated with increased irritability were investigated. This will allow to relate emotion experience with emotion perception. The results of the study may provide a target to further develop therapeutic interventions and aid caregivers of preHD subjects.
Interventions
OTHERfunctional Imaging
Brain responses associated with emotional memory will be investigated
Sponsors
Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 90 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Huntington's disease positive genotype and non-carrier siblings
Exclusion criteria
* visible chorea * MRI contra-indications * major neurological/psychiatric comorbidity
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Significant group differences in brain activation for perceiving emotional vs neutral faces by following random effects analyses | 6 months | Significant group differences in beta-values for the contrast emotional faces vs neutral faces following general linear model parameter estimates |
Outcome results
None listed