An interventional study of Behavioral tasks with MEG recording in Facial Palsy and Surgery, sponsored by Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 20 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-26.
Sponsored by Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
Facial palsy (of one hemiface) affects the sensorimotor representation of the face of the patients, and possibly also their mental representation of emotional facial expressions. Three surgical techniques are performed to rehabilitate the face motricity in patients with severe facial palsy: Facio-facial anastomosis (AFF), Hypoglosso-facial anastomosis (AHF), and Lengthening temporalis myoplasty (LTM). Our objective is to study brain plasticity and facial emotion recognition in patients with facial palsy before and after surgical rehabilitation, using non invasive magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording during motor and emotion recognition tasks.
Facial palsy (of one hemiface) affects the sensorimotor representation of the face of the patients, and possibly also their mental representation of emotional facial expressions. Patients with severe facial palsy can benefit from surgical rehabilitation, allowing them to recover the motor and expressive function of the face. Three surgical techniques are performed to rehabilitate facial palsy: Facio-facial anastomosis (AFF), Hypoglosso-facial anastomosis (AHF), and Lengthening temporalis myoplasty (LTM). Prinicipal objective is to study brain plasticity and facial emotion recognition in patients with facial palsy before and after surgical rehabilitation. For this, the investigators will use magnetoencephalography (MEG), which is a non-invasive brain imaging method with high temporal and good spatial resolution.
Twenty patients with facial palsy will be included in the study. They will undergo two visits, during which MEG will be recorded in two types of tasks: motor task and emotion recognition task (see below). One visit will take place before surgery. The second visit will take place after the surgical intervention and the face motor rehabilitation, 3 to 18 months after the 1st visit.
MOTOR TASK: The motor task will comprise 5 types of simple movements: eye blinks, smiling, tongue protraction, teeth greeting, index flexion. These movements will be performed repetitively - at a pace of about 1 movement every 2 second - in separate, randomly alternating, blocks of 24 movements of each type, for a total of 120 movements of each type.
EMOTION RECOGNITION TASK: A total of 320 faces will be presented to the patients. The faces will be distributed in 5 blocks of 16 different faces (8 male, 8 female), displaying each of 4 emotional expressions: happiness, anger, sadness, and neutral expression. Occasional suprised target faces will be added. The patient's task will be to report the occurrence of those faces by pressing a button in his/her dominant hand. The stimuli will be presented in random order in each block.
The investogators will analyze neuromagnetic activities at the sensor and source levels during the motor tasks (primary objective) and in response to the faces (secondary objective).
81 studies on the registry are indexed under Facial Paralysis; 28 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 16 is below the median of 50 across 59 interventional studies indexed under Facial Paralysis.
Browse Facial Paralysis studies →Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France is the lead sponsor of 378 studies on the registry; 81 are open to participants now.
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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.
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A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
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1. MOTOR TASK: Five types of simple movements will be performed: eye blinks, smiling, tongue protraction, teeth greeting, index flexion. A total of 120 movements of each type will be performed in a set of five blocks interspersed with short breaks. 2. EMOTION RECOGNITION TASK: Four emotional expressions will be presented: happiness, anger, sadness, and neutral expression. A total of 320 face stimuli will be presented in 5 blocks interspersed with short breaks. Occasional target faces displaying a suprised expression will be added. The patient's task will be to report the occurrence of those faces by pressing a button in his/her dominant hand.
Device: Behavioral tasks with MEG recording
The patients will undergo two visits, during which MEG will be recorded in two types of behavioral tasks: motor task and emotion recognition task. One visit will take place before surgery. The second visit will take place after the surgical intervention and the face motor rehabilitation, 3 to 18 months after the 1st visit.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) activities during facial motor tasks
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) activities during the motor tasks
Time frame: between 3 and 18 months
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) activities in reponse to emotional faces
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) activities in reponse to sad, angry, happy, and neutral faces during the facial emotion recognition task
Time frame: between 3 and 18 months
Plan to share: No
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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