ITT and Interference in Premanifest HD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Interhemispheric Information Transfer and Interference in Premanifest Huntington’s Disease
IRAS ID
147071
Contact name
Richard Frackowiak
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL
Research summary
This short cognitive study forms part of Helen Crawford’s PhD project as well as contributing to the work of the Huntington’s Disease (HD) Research Group. The study aims to better understand particular cognitive processes during the preclinical stage of HD, i.e. before the onset of symptoms and to improve the tools used to measure them. HD is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder for which the symptoms include movement impairment, psychiatric disturbances and cognitive decline.
The study comprises two cognitive tasks, one designed to measure the time it takes for information to cross between the two hemispheres in the brain via a structure called the corpus callosum (interhemispheric information transfer) and the second, susceptibility to interference in premanifest HD. The computer-based tasks, called the Interhemispheric Transfer Task and the Flanker Task will be administered to healthy controls as well as premanifest HD subjects for comparison.
The outcomes of both tasks will be analysed using regression models, adjusting for a predefined set of potential confounders. We expect to find a difference between premanifest HD and control participant’s reaction times and a linear association between reaction times and disease-burden. We also plan to look for associations between cognitive performance on these tasks and previously obtained imaging measures in particular regions-of-interest in the brain e.g. corpus callosal volume and cortical thickness. This pilot study hopes to demonstrate the sensitivity of these two tasks to subtle between-group differences and reveal the early degeneration of interhemispheric information transfer and conflict monitoring in premanifest HD.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0588
Date of REC Opinion
22 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion