Cartography of Social Cognition Network and Their Alterations in Patients With Epilepsy

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Epilepsy, Drug Resistant Epilepsy

In brief

Social cognition, which refers to the ability to interpret social information and behave accordingly in a social environment, is crucial in everyday life. But this ability has been shown to be altered in patients with epilepsy, especially in medial temporal lobe epilepsy, which leads to a deterioration in the patient's quality of life. However, the mechanisms of those deficiencies remain largely unknown. The Team objective is to achieve a structural and functional cartography of the social cognition network in 20 healthy subjects and 20 patients with drug-resistant medial temporal lobe epilepsy (before and one year after resective surgery of the epileptogenic focus). Social cognition deficiencies will be assessed using a specifically dedicated neuropsychological assessment validated in French (Batteries de Cognition Sociale BCS). Brain structural analyses will be performed on a 3-Tesla MRI (3T MRI), including an anatomical T1 sequence, a High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) to assess the morphology and macrostructural characteristics of long and short white matter tracts involved in social cognition, and quantitative MRI and Hybrid Diffusion Imaging (HYDI) to assess their microstructure. Functional connectivity will be assessed using an ultra-high-field 7-Tesla MRI (7T MRI), with acquisition in resting state and during specific social cognition tasks. Joint analysis of structural and functional connectivity will enable the team to assess the alterations of social cognition networks in patients with epilepsy and their reorganisations after epilepsy surgery.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05527093

Run by

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

People needed

20

Starts

2025-03-19

Expected to finish

2029-01-19

Last updated by the study team

2025-03-21

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 65. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Age ≥ 18 years old
• Good understanding of written and verbal French language
• Written consent signed by the subject
• Patients with focal temporal lobe epilepsy for at least one year, drug-resistant, due to a hippocampal sclerosis
• Undergoing presurgical assessment
• Affiliated to a social security system

You may not qualify if…

• Under juridical protection
• With claustrophobia or any MRI contra-indication
• Pregnancy or lactation
• Participation in another research with an exclusion period
• Refusal to be notified in the event of anomalies discovered during the performance of an MRI sequence

Where it is running

• Unité d'épilepsie - GHU Pitié Salpêtrière — Paris, France (enrolling)
• NeuroSpin - CEA — Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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