Clinical Research Directory

Social Cognition in Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Charcot disease, is a neurodegenerative disease evidenced by gradual paralysis of the muscles involved in voluntary motor function. The clinical hallmark of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is the combination of upper and lower motor neuron signs and symptoms. The most recent studies suggest that up to 50% of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patients demonstrate mild to moderate cognitive disturbance. Impaired social cognition, including a deficit in the recognition of facial emotions and the identification of vocal prosody, is recognized as a part of the cognitive phenotype of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, with crucial implications for patients' and caregivers' training. However, studies remain scarce and the data acquired must be supported. The evolution of these manifestations during the disease is still poorly understood. In this study the investigators aim to assess the social cognition capacities of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis compared to healthy matched control subjects.

Social COgnition Screening

Social cognition refers to the mental processes involved in social interactions, including social perception, motivation, communication, emotion recognition, and theory of mind. Face perception plays a key role in children's social development, but children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to look less at social stimuli, especially faces, than typically developing (TD) peers. Eye-tracking studies highlight these visual exploration differences, linked to difficulties in joint attention, emotion recognition, and theory of mind, as well as in executive and memory functions. Standard diagnostic tests often require active participation and sufficient language, which makes assessment challenging for children with ASD and additional cognitive or language impairments. This research project investigates how visual activity supports social cognition depending on cognitive and language levels, hypothesizing that eye-tracking can provide useful indicators for ASD screening and diagnosis.

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project

The purpose of this study is to determine the long term effects of early intervention (placement into foster care) on physical, cognitive, social and brain development and psychiatric symptomatology in previously institutionalized children.

Losartan and Social Processing

This study explores the effects of single-dose losartan (50mg) versus placebo on social processing in healthy volunteers.

MRI-Eye Tracking Pairing, a Tool for Assessing Social Cognition in Children With ASD

Most studies use static visual percepts that are less representative of joint attention versus an ecological environment. This has the consequence of decreasing the perception of an interaction with a social partner, which is an essential step in achieving joint attention. The originality of this study is to improve the design of visual percepts (in the form of video) in order to mimic an ecological environment as much as possible by using MRI-ET coupling. The second originality of this study is the longitudinal exploration of the neurodevelopment of social cognition in autistic children. Studies by the Redcay and Oberwelland teams observe different activations at different ages. The hypothesis is that the perception of joint attention varies over time in people with ASD. To date, there are no studies to determine the influence of childhood neurodevelopment in autistic people on the perception of joint attention. It would be unprecedented to use the MRI-ET pairing as a tool for assessing social cognition as a function of the development of children with ASD.

Social Cognition in Dystrophinopathies and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The primary aim of this observational study is to investigate specific aspects of social cognition in dystrophinopathies. Body awareness, interpersonal distance and emotional processing will be measured in a sample of patients affected by Becker (BMD) and Duchenne (DMD) muscular dystrophy, compared with a sample of patients affected by osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), and both compared with a control sample with typical development. The secondary aim is to study cortical activity at rest, by means of electroencephalography (EEG), to explore frequencies and time course of EEG responses. Moreover, the relationship between EEG activity and neuropsychological, dispositional and subjective measures will be explored through correlational analyses.

Neuropsychological Assessment of Children and Adolescents With Turner Syndrome

Turner syndrome (TS) is a rare chromosomal disorder characterized by partial or complete loss of one of the X chromosomes that affects about one in every 2000 female babies born. These young patients described difficulties making friends, understanding others' emotions and intentions, and controlling their own emotions. Difficulties in these domains could led to social withdrawal, to reduced social skills and could have a significant impact on self esteem and mental health as well as on long-term academic and social functioning in affected individuals. The purpose of this project is to identify functional and dysfunctional cognitive and socio-cognitive abilities in these young patients which could account social difficulties described by some of them and their family. To this end, 35 girls with TS and 35 girls with isolated growth hormone deficiency and normal cerebral MRI will be recruited. Subjects will be 7 to 16 years and 11 months of age. Socio-cognitive and cognitive functions will be assessed with neuropsychological and experimental tasks. Questionnaires completed by patient, parents or teacher, will evaluate social and behavioral functioning.