Summary

• Study director: Katherine Rankin, PhD [1]
• Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Recruiting?: Yes
• Official study title: Measuring Altered Social Behavior in Neurodegenerative Disease
• Conditions studied: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) [2], Alzheimer's disease (AD) [3], semantic dementia (SD) [4], progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) [5], corticobasal degeneration (CBD) [6], dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) [7], progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) [8] and cerebrovascular disease (VaD) [9].
• Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adapt measures of social and emotional cognition for valid use in neurodegenerative disease patients. The resulting battery of tests will be used to identify characteristic patterns of altered social functioning in different neurodegenerative diseases, measure specific symptoms found to improve early diagnosis of these disorders, and improve our knowledge of normal social and emotional cognition in healthy older adults. This project also aims to link any findings with structural neuroanatomy to improve our understanding of the neurologic foundations for social and emotional behavior.

Eligibility

• Inclusion criteria: Subjects must be enrolled in the Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images and Emotions [10], Larry L. Hillblom study of Healthy Aging [11], UCSF Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center [12], or Aging Brain - Vasculature, Ischemia and Behavior [13]. Subjects must meet criteria for one of the neurodegenerative diseases studied (behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) [14], Alzheimer's disease (AD) [15], semantic dementia (SD) [16], progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) [17], corticobasal degeneration (CBD) [18], dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) [19], progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) [20] and cerebrovascular disease (VaD) [21]), unless participating as a healthy volunteer [22]. Subjects must also have a Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) score above 15 and be able to understand testing procedures.
• Exclusion criteria: Subjects who do not have an informant who has known the subject for more than 5 years and is willing to participate in the questionnaire portion of the evaluation, have a Clinical Dementia Rating Scale of more than 2.0, are unable to cooperate with testing procedures, or have neurologic findings that suggest a prominent non-neurodegenerative cause for cognitive/functional changes will be excluded.

What is involved?

• Testing: Subjects’ social and emotional cognition and behavior will be measured using multiple modes of assessment such as face-to-face measures of general and social cognition, including computerized testing and observational clinical ratings. Every participant has an enrolled informant who completes questionnaires describing the subject’s behavior and personality.
• Frequency of visits: One time only for individuals with neurodegenerative disease, and a total of three times over the course of one year for healthy older adults.
• Materials needed prior to evaluation: None
• Costs: No costs will be charged for any of the study procedures. For those who choose to stay in the hospital, there are no costs associated with the stay. Parking will be validated for Millberry Parking Garage for study visit. Participants are responsible for their travel and hotel, should they choose to stay in one.

Contact information

• Coordinator: Pardis Poorzand [23], 415-476-1691