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Alzheimer DiseaseACTSOMANCT06213766

Spatial and Ocular Trajectories for the Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

A study testing Cognitive assessment, Questionnaires and Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking. in people with Alzheimer Disease and Aging, run by Hospices Civils de Lyon at 3 sites in France.

Unknown status

Status not confirmed. The sponsor has not verified this record for over two years, so it may be out of date.

Official record
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Trial summary

Spatial navigation is a high-level cognitive function that enables humans to orientate themselves and move around in space by constructing a mental representation of the environment. It is particularly interesting because it involves numerous neural networks, linked to proprioception and vision, for example. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 20 to 85 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Alzheimer Disease, Aging
What is being tested?
Cognitive assessment, Questionnaires and Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking.
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
250 participants
Where
3 sitesFrance
Study dates
1 Mar 2024to 1 Sep 2025
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

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 20 to 85 years
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Cognitively healthy subjects:
  • Participants aged between 20 and 85 years old;
  • Participant affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme;
  • Participants who have been informed and have given written consent.
  • Patients with Alzheimer's disease:
  • Participant aged between 50 to 85 years old;
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  • Participant undergoing memory clinic consultations for a diagnosed Alzheimer's disease, at the stage of minor neurocognitive impairment or major neurocognitive impairment, according to the NIA-AA 2011 criteria (McKahn et al., 2011, Albert et al., 2011);
  • Mild to moderate cognitive impairment, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE ≥ 20/30, in the 6 months prior to inclusion);
  • Participant affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme;
  • Participants who have been informed and have given written consent.

Who cannot join

  • For all participants:
  • Severe, progressive or unstable pathology whose nature may interfere with the assessment variables (epilepsy, acute psychiatric or psychotic disorders, visual hallucinations, acute infection);
  • Consumption of toxic substances that may affect cognitive performance;
  • Deafness or blindness that could compromise the participant's assessment or participation in tasks and scales;
  • Participants under guardianship or legal protection;
  • Pregnant women, women in labour or breastfeeding mothers;
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  • Persons under psychiatric care.
  • Cognitively healthy subjects:
  • Participants diagnosed with a cognitive disorder.
  • Specifically for patients with Alzheimer's disease:
  • Participants with a diagnosis other than Alzheimer's disease that promotes neurocognitive impairment (with the exception of cerebral microvascular involvement, i.e. mild to moderate microangiopathy);
  • Severe cerebral microangiopathy (extensive and severe white matter hypersignals, Fazekas score = 3);
  • Severe psycho-behavioral manifestations preventing performance of the task, at the investigator's discretion;
  • Current participation in an Alzheimer's disease drug research protocol, in particular testing 'disease-modifying' treatments that may interact with the pathophysiology of the disease (after randomisation).

Trial locations and contacts

3 sites in 1 country.

Antoine GARNIER-CRUSSARD, Dr contact

04 72 43 20 50

antoine.garnier-crussard@chu-lyon.fr

France3 sites
  • Service de neuro-cognition et neuro-ophtalmologie Hôpital Pierre Wertheimer

    Bron, 69500

    Maïté FORMAGLIO, MD, 04 72 11 80 71 ext. +33, maite.formaglio@chu-lyon.fr

  • Service de médecine du vieillissement - Hôpital Lyon Sud

    Pierre-Bénite, 69495

    Claire SCHUTZ, Dr, 04 78 86 39 40, claire.schutz@chu-lyon.fr

  • Hôpital des Charpennes, Institut du Vieillissement, Hospices Civils de Lyon

    Villeurbanne, Lyon, 69100

Other trials in France

About this study

Official title: Joint Analysis of Spatial and Ocular Trajectories for the Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

Spatial navigation is a high-level cognitive function that enables humans to orientate themselves and move around in space by constructing a mental representation of the environment. It is particularly interesting because it involves numerous neural networks, linked to proprioception and vision, for example.

Despite the versatility of this cognitive function, spatial navigation is little studied clinically, although changes in spatial planning and navigation strategies have been associated with many brain disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (Coughlan et al., 2018). This may be explained in view of the neuropsychological tests currently in use, which do not effectively assess spatial navigation disorders. In addition, many non-pathological parameters - in particular socio-demographic and lifestyle - (Wolbers \& Hegarty, 2010; Coutrot et al., 2018) affect spatial navigation performance. Separating the pathological component from these non-pathological factors in spatial navigation can be challenging.

Read more

In this context, Sea Hero Quest (SHQ) has been developed (Coutrot et al., 2018; Spiers et al., 2021) as an international-scale cognitive spatial navigation task that holds great promise for assessing spatial navigation performance during normal and pathological ageing. SHQ is a video game that implements classic tasks from the spatial cognition literature, and has enabled the trajectories of 4 million players with varied socio-demographic profiles to be collected.

In addition to the direct measurement of spatial displacements, eye movements, measured by eye-tracking, provide additional information on the cognitive processes associated with visual attention. The analysis of eye movements can provide valuable information about the strategies employed by humans during spatial navigation (Zhu et al., eLife 2023).

While it is well known that normal ageing and pathological ageing (e.g. in the context of Alzheimer's disease) affect performance in simple spatial navigation or visual attention tasks, the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in this deterioration remain poorly understood. The investigators hypothesise that the joint analysis of ocular and spatial traces will provide a more detailed understanding of the cognitive strategies deployed during a spatial navigation task, and therefore of these underlying mechanisms.

The investigators therefore propose to jointly study the association between two complementary cognitive functions: spatial navigation and visual attention, and their relationship with normal and pathological ageing (confirmed Alzheimer's disease, plasma biomarkers and genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease). The joint analysis of these different signals has never been carried out as part of research into normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease.

Being tested
Cognitive assessment, Questionnaires, Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking., Blood sampling
Keywords
Alzheimer Disease, spatial navigation, eye-tracking, biomarkers, early diagnosis, personalized medicine, machine learning
Medical subject headings
Alzheimer Disease, Spatial Navigation, Disease

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Cognitive assessmentDiagnostic test

    Group 1: Cognitively healthy subject:

    After signing the consent form, during the only visit of the study, the investigator will administer to cognitively healthy subjects two cognitive screening tests to ensure that they meet the criteria for group 1. If performance on the cognitive scales prove to be borderline or below current standards (Montreal Cognitive Assessment ≥ 26/30 and MacNair Cognitive Difficulties Self-Rating Scale ≥15) for at least one of the 2 tests, the participant will prematurely end the study and may be offered an in-depth cognitive assessment as part of routine care.

    Group 2: Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease:

    After signing the consent form, during the only visit of the study, the investigator will administer to patients the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to assess cognitive status.

  • QuestionnairesOther

    For every participants (group 1 and 2):

    During the only visit of the study and after the intervention 1, the participants will answer questionnaires about:

    • Demographic data such as age, gender, weight, height, education level;
    • Lifestyle habits such as usual mode of transport, sense of direction, use of GPS device, and video game practice;
    • Quality of sleep over the previous month and the previous night;
    • Cognitive reserve questionnaire from Rami et al., 2011;
    • Concomitant treatment and comorbidities.
  • Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking.Device

    For every participants (group 1 and 2):

    During the only visit of the study and after interventions 1 and 2, the participants will complete the spatial navigation task with eye-tracking.

    The participants will play the Sea Hero Quest video game and take on the role of the captain of a small boat that has to find its way through an aquatic environment. At the start of each level, the player is shown a map of the environment, with the boat's initial position and the buoys it must reach as quickly as possible in a set order. Once the map has been memorised, it disappears and the navigation begins.

    Participants will play 6 levels of Sea Hero Quest (two training levels and four different navigation levels). This intervention will be proposed by a trained team member and participants will play on a digital tablet connected to an eye-tracker. The total duration of the task is 30 min (training phase + assessment sequences).

  • Blood samplingBiological

    For every participants (group 1 and 2):

    During the only visit of the study and after interventions 1, 2 and 3, a state-qualified nurse will take venous samples from 3 tubes of 4ml each.

    These blood samples will be frozen and stored until the end of the study when they will be analysed:

    • Sample 1: plasmatic Quanterix p-tau217 assay;
    • Sample 2: apolipoprotein E genotyping;
    • Sample 3: measurement of plasmatic creatinine levels. Neither the cognitively healthy subjects, nor the patients, nor the clinicians in charge of the patients included will be informed of the results of these biological assays (absence of clinical interest established at the present time of the APOE genotype and the p-tau217 protein level, absence of modification of the care pathway, in adequacy to the bioethics law of August 02, 2021. Creatinine level is used in this study as an adjustment variable to interpret the p-tau217 protein level and will not be used for clinical interpretation.
Study groups in NCT06213766
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Cognitively healthy subjectsActive comparatorParticipants aged between 20 and 85 years old with no cognitive impairment (Montreal Cognitive Assessment ≥ 26/30 and MacNair Cognitive Difficulties Self-Rating Scale ≥15), affiliated or entitled to a social health insurance, having been informed and having given written consent to the study. As part of the study, cognitively healthy subjects will : * Undergo a cognitive assessment; * Answer several questionnaires on their demographic data, lifestyle habits, quality of sleep, cognitive reserve, concomitant treatment and comorbidities; * Complete a cognitive spatial navigation task with eye-tracking; * Have a blood sampling for plasma biomarker and genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
Receives: Diagnostic Test: Cognitive assessment; Other: Questionnaires; Device: Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking.; Biological: Blood sampling
Patients suffering from Alzheimer's diseaseExperimentalPatients aged between 50 and 85 years old, undergoing memory clinic consultation for prodromal or mild Alzheimer's disease with mild or moderate cognitive decline (Mini-Mental State Examination ≥20/30) affiliated or entitled to a social health insurance, having been informed and having given written consent to the study. As part of the study, patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease will : * Undergo a cognitive assessment; * Answer several questionnaires on their demographic data, lifestyle habits, quality of sleep, cognitive reserve, concomitant treatment and comorbidities; * Complete a cognitive spatial navigation task with eye-tracking; * Have a blood sampling for plasma biomarker and genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
Receives: Diagnostic Test: Cognitive assessment; Other: Questionnaires; Device: Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking.; Biological: Blood sampling

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Analysis of spatial navigation strategies used by participants according to age.

    Spatial navigation strategies will be described thanks to machine learning identifying spatial navigation patterns taking into consideration:

    • Spatial performances: length of trajectories sampled at 2Hz (1 x-y coordinate every 500 ms) - the shorter the trajectory, the better the performance;
    • Eye movements: gaze sampling recorded and sampled at 60Hz to identify visual clues used by participants to solve the spatial task).

    These patterns will be described according to participant's age.

    Measured: Day 1 Just After inclusion

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Cognitive health status: presence or absence of diagnosed Alzheimer's disease.

    Spatial navigation strategies will be compared according to participant's cognitive status (cognitively healthy versus Alzheimer's disease).

    Measured: Day 1 Just After inclusion

  2. P-tau217 plasmatic protein assay in pg/mL interpreted in relation to creatinine levels and body mass index.

    Spatial navigation strategies will be compared according to the p-tau217 plasmatic protein assay. A Simoa (Single Molecule Array for Protein Detection) platform will use commercial kits to carry out the p-tau217 protein assay (Quanterix).

    Measured: Day 1 Just After inclusion

  3. Genotyping of the apolipoprotein E gene: ApoE4 carrier or ApoE4 non carrier.

    Spatial navigation strategies will be compared according to the genotyping. A molecular biology platform will carry out genotyping for apolipoprotein E

    Measured: Day 1 Just After inclusion

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted19 Jan 2024
  2. Study start1 Mar 2024 (estimated)
  3. Primary completion1 Sep 2025 (estimated)
  4. Study completion1 Sep 2025 (estimated)

Resources

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
Basic science
Allocation
Non-randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
250 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT06213766
Sponsor's protocol ID
69HCL23_1166
Acronym
ACTSOMA
Status last verified
Jan 2024
First submitted
10 Jan 2024
Last updated
26 Jan 2024
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Cognitive assessment, Questionnaires and Spatial navigation task with eye-tracking. in people with Alzheimer Disease and Aging, run by Hospices Civils de Lyon at 3 sites in France.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 10 inclusion and 14 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: status not confirmed, as of the sponsor's last update on 26 Jan 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 3 sites in France. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Results are not available in the source record.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Antoine GARNIER-CRUSSARD, Dr (04 72 43 20 50, antoine.garnier-crussard@chu-lyon.fr), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Analysis of spatial navigation strategies used by participants according to age. (time frame: Day 1 Just After inclusion). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 26 Jan 2024.

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