ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05267028Updated Mar 31, 2023

Rehabilitation of Facial Emotion Recognition in Alzheimer's Disease

An observational study in Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and Family Caregivers, sponsored by Association de Recherche Bibliographique pour les Neurosciences. Completed at 1 site in Monaco. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-03-31.

Sponsored by Association de Recherche Bibliographique pour les Neurosciences · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Other
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
16
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

EYE-TAR(AD+) is an observational study based on the same design as the princeps EYE-TAR(MA) study, but with a larger number of patients and including an additional evaluation of Facial emotion recognition (based on a more ecological material), in order to reinforce conclusions of the study EYE-TAR(MA) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npg.2020.08.003.

The main objective is to confirm that facial emotion recognition can be improved in AD using the "Training of Affect Recognition program" (TAR).

The Secondary Objectives are to:

Evaluate the impact of the "Training of Affect Recognition program" (TAR) on oculomotor behavior in a situation of social cognition, on behavioral disorders and on caregiver burden.

Confirm that improvement in facial emotion recognition is related to modification of observation strategies.

Confirm the link between improved recognition of facial emotions, reduced behavioral disorders and caregiver burden.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alzheimer's Dementia (AD)
  • Family Caregivers

Keywords

  • Facial emotion recognition
  • Training of Affect Recognition
  • Behavioral disorders
  • Caregiver's burden
  • Alzheimer's Dementia
  • Gaze strategies
  • Eye-Tracking
  • Oculomotor behaviors
03

In context

Alzheimer Disease

3,965 studies on the registry are indexed under Alzheimer Disease; 926 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 16 is below the median of 200 across 814 observational studies indexed under Alzheimer Disease.

Browse Alzheimer Disease studies →

Lead sponsor

Association de Recherche Bibliographique pour les Neurosciences is the lead sponsor of 9 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Patients followed at the Memory Center of the Rainier III Center, presenting a neurodegenerative pathology of the AD type, for whom participation in workshops (remediation of the recognition of facial emotions and cognitive stimulation) led by a neuropsychologist, is recommended.

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Male or Female.
  • AD diagnosed according to l'IWG-2 (Dubois \& al. 2014) criteria,
  • Mini-Mental State (MMS-E) ≥15
  • Subject accompanied by a family caregiver and whose participation in a cognitive stimulation workshop was recommended in Memory Centre of the RAINIER Centre (Princesses Grace Hospital - Monaco)
  • Written signed by patient and family caregiver.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • General anaesthesia within 3 months.
  • History of psychiatric and/or neurological disorder (other than the diagnosed neurodegenerative pathology);
  • History of alcoholism or drug addiction
  • Ophthalmological or neurological problems preventing a video-oculography examination.
  • Oculomotor disorders such as "fixation disorders" or "ocular tracking disorders".
  • Cognitive disorders of the neurovisual type (visual agnosia, prosopagnosia, visuo-spatial disorder or visuo-perceptual disorder) or aphasia.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Observational model
Other
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
16 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • AD-TAR

    AD subjects who take part to Facial Emotion Recognition rehabilitation (TAR)

    Other: AD-TAR

  • AD-Cognitive Stimulation

    AD subjects who take part to cognitive stimulation session (12 sessions during 4 weeks)

    Other: AD-Cognitive Stimulation

Interventions

  • OtherAD-TAR

    12 sessions in groups of 4 subject, over 6 weeks (2 sessions per week), using a rehabilitation program named Training of Affect Recognition (TAR).

  • OtherAD-Cognitive Stimulation

    12 sessions in groups of 4 subject, over 6 weeks (2 sessions per week), using classic cognitive stimulation workshops.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Facial emotion recognition (FER) performances

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of FER performance between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group. Evaluation criteria: Scores to Ekman Faces task (1976). FER was assessed using pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976), to test 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), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  2. Facial emotion recognition (FER) performances (dynamic set)

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of FER performance between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group. Evaluation criteria: Scores to the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES). FER was assessed using pictures from the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES/ Van Der Schalk J, Hawk ST, Fischer AH, Doosje B. Moving faces, looking places: validation of the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES). Emotion. 2011;11(4):907-20.), to test 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), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

Secondary outcomes

  1. Facial emotion recognition (FER) performances - Response times

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of FER performance between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group. Evaluation criteria: Response times to identify pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  2. Facial emotion recognition (FER) performances - Response times (dynamic set)

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of FER performance between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group. Evaluation criteria: Response time to identify dynamic expressions from the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES).

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  3. Eye movements behaviors during Facial emotion recognition (FER)

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of gaze patterns between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: Eye movements (number of fixations on areas of interest) recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  4. Eye-Tracking Measurements during Facial emotion recognition (FER)

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of gaze patterns between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: Eye movements (duration of fixations on areas of interest) recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  5. Eye gaze strategies during Facial emotion recognition (FER) (dynamic set)

    Change from Baseline and Comparison of gaze patterns between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, during Facial emotion recognition tasks. Evaluation criteria: Eye movements (timeline of eye fixations on areas of interest) recorded with a gaze recording device Tobii. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES - 2011).

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  6. Behavioral disorders

    Change from Baseline and Comparison between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, 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). The evaluation was based on an interview with patients' primary caregivers. 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; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  7. The Family caregiver's burden

    Change from Baseline and Comparison between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, Evaluation criteria: The burden of the family caregiver was measured with the Zarit scale (completed by the caregiver). Composed of 22 questions on the physical, emotional and financial load felt. Total score /88.

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

  8. Global cognitive performance

    Change from Baseline and Comparison between AD-TAR group and AD-Cognitive Stimulation group, Evaluation criteria: MMSE (MINI MENTAL STATE EXAMINATION). 30-question general cognitive function assessment. The maximum score is 30.

    Time frame: Baseline; Week 6; 1 month post intervention

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Centre Mémoire / Centre de Gérontologie Clinique Rainier III / Princess Grace Hospital
    Monaco, 98000, Monaco
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Feb 2022 to primary completion in Mar 2023, 13 months.

Of 364 non-industry observational studies under Alzheimer Disease, half reached primary completion within 81 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 39 and three quarters within 203. This study's 13 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 405 studies reached it within 67 months; a quarter within 35 and three quarters within 171.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 14, 2022
First posted
Mar 4, 2022
StartActual
Feb 10, 2022
Primary completionActual
Mar 22, 2023
CompletionActual
Mar 22, 2023
Last update
Mar 31, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 31, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05267028
Lead sponsor
Association de Recherche Bibliographique pour les Neurosciences
Collaborators
Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace, Universite Cote d'Azur
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 4, 2022
Start date
Feb 10, 2022
Primary completion
Mar 22, 2023
Completion
Mar 22, 2023
Last update
Mar 31, 2023

Study contacts

Sandrine LOUCHART DE LA CHAPELLE, MD PhD
principal investigator · Centre Mémoire, Centre de Gérontologie Clinique RAINIER III, Princess Grace Hospital, Monaco

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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