It is commonly admitted that social cognition impairment, like deficit in facial emotion recognition or misinterpretation of others' intentions (Theory of Mind), are associated with social behavior disorders. This kind of disorders are observed in Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD), with severe deficits in FTD and lighter deficits in AD and PD. One explanation might be that patients apply inappropriate visual exploration strategies to decode emotions and intentions of others. This study aims to test this hypothesis and further to analyse whether different patterns emerge from these pathologies.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
70
The study is conducted in accordance with usual practices of eye-tracking and neuropsychological evaluations carried out at the Center Rainier III. Eye-Tracker® is used at the Centre Rainier III since August 2014. It is a non-invasive device for eye movements recording, allowing doctors and researchers to measure standard parameters related to eye movements. Developed by the Eye Brain Company (France), this is a Class IIa medical device, CE marking, according to Annexe IX of the directive 93/42/CE.
Eye gaze strategies (number of eye fixation) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Affective ToM task Evaluation criteria: number of eye fixation. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. Affective ToM was assessed using the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001).
Time frame: Baseline
Eye gaze strategies (duration of eye fixations) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Affective ToM task. Evaluation criteria: duration of eye fixations. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. Affective ToM was assessed using the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001).
Time frame: Baseline
Eye gaze strategies (response times) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
Evaluation criteria: time to answer for each picture (in second). It was recorded using the eye-tracking device. Affective ToM was assessed using 36 pictures from the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.
Time frame: Baseline
Eye gaze strategies (number of eye fixation) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: number of eye fixation. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).
Time frame: Baseline
Eye gaze strategies (duration of eye fixation) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: duration of eye fixations. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).
Time frame: Baseline
Eye gaze strategies (response times) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: time to answer for each picture (in second). It was recorded using the eye-tracking device. Facial emotion recognition was assessed using 28 pictures from The Ekman Faces task (1976), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.
Time frame: Baseline
Facial emotion recognition (FER) performances
Affective ToM performances, and behavioral disorders. Evaluation criteria: Scores (/28) and sub-score (/6) to Ekman Faces task (1976). The Ekman Faces task (1976) tests the recognition of the six facial basic emotions and neutral faces. There were four pictures per emotion, for a total of 28. For each picture, participants were asked to select one of the seven labels (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and neutral)
Time frame: Baseline
Affective ToM performances
To study correlations between eye gaze strategies, Facial emotion recognition and Affective ToM performances, and behavioral disorders. Evaluation criteria: Scores to the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001). 36 black-and-white photographs of the eye area of faces. Subjects are asked to choose which word, among four options, best described what the character in the photograph was thinking or feeling. For this task, four scores were obtained: a total score (/36) and three emotional valence sub-scores: positive (/8), neutral (/16) and negative (/12).
Time frame: Baseline
Behavioral disorders.
To study correlations between eye gaze strategies, Facial emotion recognition and Affective ToM performances, and behavioral disorders. Evaluation criteria: Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), a scale that includes ten behavioral items (delusions, hallucinations, agitation, depression, anxiety, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability and aberrant motor behaviors) and two neurovegetative symptoms (sleep and appetite disorders). Both the frequency (/5) and the severity (/3) of each behavior were determined and a score was calculated by multiplying the frequency and the severity of each behavior observed during the last month.
Time frame: Baseline
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