Completed
OBSERVATIONAL
NCT04748263
Eye Gaze Strategies During Facial Emotion Recognition in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Links With Neuropsychiatric Disorders (EYE-ToM Study)
View on ClinicalTrials.gov
Updated Dec 15, 2025
Brief Summary
It is commonly admitted that social cognition impairment, like deficit in facial emotion recognition or misinterpretation of others' intentions (Theory of Mind), are associated with social behavior disorders. This kind of disorders are observed in Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD), with severe deficits in FTD and lighter deficits in AD and PD. One explanation might be that patients apply inappropriate visual exploration strategies to decode emotions and intentions of others. This study aims to test this hypothesis and further to analyse whether different patterns emerge from these pathologies.
Interventions
Name:
No intervention. Only survey and normal use of eye-tracking
Type:
OTHER
Description:
The study is conducted in accordance with usual practices of eye-tracking and neuropsychological evaluations carried out at the Center Rainier III.
Eye-Tracker® is used at the Centre Rainier III since August 2014. It is a non-invasive device for eye movements recording, allowing doctors and researchers to measure standard parameters related to eye movements. Developed by the Eye Brain Company (France), this is a Class IIa medical device, CE marking, according to Annexe IX of the directive 93/42/CE.
Primary Outcomes
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (number of eye fixation) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Affective ToM task Evaluation criteria: number of eye fixation. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. Affective ToM was assessed using the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001).
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (duration of eye fixations) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Affective ToM task.
Evaluation criteria: duration of eye fixations. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. Affective ToM was assessed using the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001).
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (response times) during Affective Theory of Mind (ToM)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Evaluation criteria: time to answer for each picture (in second). It was recorded using the eye-tracking device.
Affective ToM was assessed using 36 pictures from the " Reading the Mind in the Eyes " test (Baron-Cohen 2001), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (number of eye fixation) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks.
Evaluation criteria: number of eye fixation. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (duration of eye fixation) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks.
Evaluation criteria: duration of eye fixations. Eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking device. FER was assessed using some pictures from the Ekman Faces task (1976).
Measure:
Eye gaze strategies (response times) during Facial emotion recognition (FER)
TimeFrame:
Baseline
Description:
Comparison of gaze patterns between control group and pathological groups, during Facial emotion recognition tasks.
Evaluation criteria: time to answer for each picture (in second). It was recorded using the eye-tracking device.
Facial emotion recognition was assessed using 28 pictures from The Ekman Faces task (1976), with a maximum of 8 seconds of response time per picture.
Trial Information
NCT ID
NCT04748263
Status
Completed
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Sponsor
Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace
Last Updated
December 15, 2025