Huntington DiseaseNCT01842919
Dance and Huntington Disease
A study testing Kinesthetics tests, Psychological questionnaires and structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI) in people with Huntington Disease, run by Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France at 1 site in France.
Trial summary
In this project investigators will evaluate the benefits of contemporary dance training using a comprehensive test battery combining standard neuropsychological batteries, psychological questionnaires on emotion, empathy and quality of life, structural magnet-resonance tomography (MRI), as well as psychophysical tests… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Huntington Disease
- What is being tested?
- Kinesthetics tests, Psychological questionnaires and structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI)
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 53 participants
- Where
- 1 siteFrance
- Study dates
- Apr 2013to 8 Jul 2016
- Phase
- Interventional
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Huntington patient
- Patients with Huntington's disease (documented by a genetic test.)
- Ability and intention to follow the dance workshop of the association Micadanse once a week for 8 months (Total Functional Capacity score (TFC) > 10).
- Have an assisting person who also lends him/herself to the protocol.
- Showing no indications against to the achievement of MRI.
- Assisting person:
- No history of neurological or psychiatric disorders.
- Showing no indications against to the achievement of MRI.
Who cannot join
- Have already taken dance lessons.
- Neurological or psychiatric history.
- Inability to achieve MRI
- History of significant head injury
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
France1 site
Institut du cerveau et de la moelle épinière (ICM), CHU Pitié Salpêtrière
Paris, 75013
About this study
In this project investigators will evaluate the benefits of contemporary dance training using a comprehensive test battery combining standard neuropsychological batteries, psychological questionnaires on emotion, empathy and quality of life, structural magnet-resonance tomography (MRI), as well as psychophysical tests on movement recognition and agency, the sense of being in control of one's own movement.
For 10 years now two experienced dancer-choreographers lead dance workshops for people with Huntington's Disease (HD) and their family and caregivers in Paris. This project will evaluate objectively the effects these workshops have, by assessing a new group of 18 patients and their partners and caregivers before and after 8 month of weekly dance training.
Read more
People with HD are troubled by involuntary movements, of which they are however not accurately aware, but moreover they become impaired at recognising instrumental actions in others. It is well known that observing somebody else's action and executing the same action rest on a common neural network. This might mean that improving one's own action execution can improve the observation and understanding of others' actions in turn. Here, investigators will investigate both the impact the movement impairments caused by HD might have on patients themselves as well as on their partners and caregivers, as a consequence of the fact that own and other action representations are shared. After 8 months of contemporary dance training, both groups will be tested again, in order to establish if both action execution (self) and perception (in others) have improved.
Other recent psychophysics and brain imaging experiments have demonstrated how the sense of agency is composed from external cues (for example sound) of the consequences of movements, and from internal sensorimotor information that result from the action plan. Importantly, in HD the latter input might be impaired, but this has never been systematically tested. Making use of a psychophysics paradigm disentangling the two cues to agency investigators first monitor the sense of their own movement in HD, and further assess the changes in agency and in the role of these cues to agency after eight months of contemporary dance practice.
Finally investigators will monitor the structural brain changes accompanying this progress, comparing the brain before and after regular dance practice and correlating action recognition psychophysics measures of agency with these changes.
In sum, this project has a double impact. Firstly it will scientifically evaluate the impact of dance on the normal but especially the brain affected by a neurodegenerative disease that causes movement impairments, and establish its effect on behaviour and wellbeing. Secondly it will evaluate in patient partners and caregivers how they represent the patients' as well as their own movements and how this changes with dance practice.
- Conditions
- Huntington Disease
- Being tested
- Kinesthetics tests, Psychological questionnaires, structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI)
- Medical subject headings
- Huntington Disease
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Kinesthetics testsOther
Psychological questionnairesOther
structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI)Other
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Huntington patient | Other | This group will perform Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), kinesthetic test and psychological questionnaires before and after 8 months of dance lessons Receives: Other: Kinesthetics tests; Other: Psychological questionnaires; Other: structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI) |
| Assisting Person | Other | This group will perform MRI, kinesthetic test and psychological questionnaires before and after 8 months of dance lessons Receives: Other: Kinesthetics tests; Other: Psychological questionnaires; Other: structural Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI) |
| Pilot subject | Other | Healthy volunteers to set up the kinesthetic test Receives: Other: Kinesthetics tests |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Detection score
The subject performs movements imposed which are recorded by sensors in the form of bright spots.
It shows the participant of "bright spots" of himself or of another subject of the same sex and must indicate whether of himself or another person.
The number of correct answers is calculated and subtracted from the numbers of false positives.
Measured: Day 1
Detection score
The subject performs movements imposed which are recorded by sensors in the form of bright spots.
It shows the participant of "bright spots" of himself or of another subject of the same sex and must indicate whether of himself or another person.
The number of correct answers is calculated and subtracted from the numbers of false positives.
The number of correct answers is calculated and subtracted from the numbers of false positives.
Measured: 9th month
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted30 Apr 2013 (estimated)
- Study startApr 2013
- Primary completion28 Jul 2015
- Study completion8 Jul 2016
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (1)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Huntington DiseaseStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, FranceThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 53 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Sponsor type
- Other government
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT01842919
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- C12-64
- Other IDs
- 2012-A01669-34
- Status last verified
- Sep 2017
- First submitted
- 3 Apr 2013
- Last updated
- 5 Jun 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
Publications
Trinkler I, Chehere P, Salgues J, Monin ML, Tezenas du Montcel S, Khani S, Gargiulo M, Durr A. Contemporary Dance Practice Improves Motor Function and Body Representation in Huntington's Disease: A Pilot Study. J Huntingtons Dis. 2019;8(1):97-110. doi: 10.3233/JHD-180315.
PubMed 30776016