Hinting Task for Huntington's Disease

NCT06774443 | Recruiting DMC

• 1 other identifier: t.b.a
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 52
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by movement disorders, behavioural disorders and cognitive decline. Especially the behavioural and cognitive symptoms of the disease lead to significant disability and burden for patients as well as caregivers. One of the cognitive domains affected by HD is social cognition. Social cognition is the ability to perceive, interpret and respond correctly to social information. Aspects of social cognition are emotion recognition, perspective taking (Theory of Mind), and emapathy. Social cognition problems can be related to behavioural problems, but to be able to study this relationship, it is important to be able to reliable measure social cognition impairments. There are a few social cognition tests available, but often they are not normd and validated for use in a Dutch neurological population. There is a lack of sensitive, simple, tests for measuring Theory of Mind in patients with HD. A promising test, that already has been proven valid in a psychiatric population, is the Hinting Task. The Hinting Task measures theory of mind through indirect speech, The Hinting task is a social cognition test, where hints are implicitly given in speech, which resembles what patients and caregivers frequently report as difficult in HD. The Hinting Task has already been translated into Dutch and is already being used in clinical parctice, but its sensitivity has not been studied yet in a neurological population. The aim of this study is to assess if the Hinting Task is sensitive in patients with HD and to relate the Hinting Task to other (social) cognitive measures, demographical characteristics and disease characteristics.

Conditions

Huntington Disease

Keywords

Social Cognition; Theory of Mind; Hinting Task; Huntington; CAG repeat

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Performance on the Hinting Task

  Performance on the Hinting Task by patients with Huntington's disease compared to healthy controls

  2025-2026

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Relations of the Hinting Task with other variables

  2025-2026

Study Arms (1)

Patients with HD

Will undergo a neuropsychological assessment

Other: Neuropsychological assessment

Interventions

Neuropsychological assessment OTHER

Neuropsychological assessment consisting of tests measuring social cognition and memory

Patients with HD

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 74 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

We aim to include 47 patients with premanifest HD and 20 patients with manifest HD. Patients will be recruited from the Enroll-HD sample of the UMCG and the Huntington outpatient clinic of Noorderbreedte in Grou. All stuParticipants of Enroll-HD that have given consent to be asked to take part in other studies of HD, will be asked to participate in the current study. The study will also be advertised on the website of the Dutch Huntington Society. Participants can sign themselves up via that advertisement. Inclusion and all other study-related activities will be performed by UMCG study staff. Data of healthy controls on the Hinting Task has already been obtained from previous studies, and can be used in accordance with the FAIR data principles. Data of healthy controls that have given permission to use their data in similar studies will be included. Controls will be matched to patients so that sex and age distributions do not significantly differ between groups.

You may qualify if:

• Confirmed diagnosis of Huntington's disease via CAG-repeat length analysis, minimum of 40 repeats
• Between 18 and 74 years of age
• Dutch speaking

You may not qualify if:

• Presence of serious psychiatric disorders or other neurological comorbidities

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Medical Center Groningen: lead

Study Sites (1)

University Medical Center Groningen

Groningen, Provincie Groningen, 9700RB, Netherlands

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Huntington Disease

Interventions

Neuropsychological Tests

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Basal Ganglia Diseases; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Dementia; Chorea; Dyskinesias; Movement Disorders; Heredodegenerative Disorders, Nervous System; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Genetic Diseases, Inborn; Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities; Cognition Disorders; Neurocognitive Disorders; Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Psychological Tests; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Officials

• Maraike Coenen

  University Medical Center Groningen

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Floor Gelmers

CONTACT

+31 50 361 46 64; f.gelmers@umcg.nl

Maraike A. Coenen

CONTACT

m.a.coenen@umcg.nl

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: CASE CONTROL
• Time Perspective: CROSS SECTIONAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 3, 2024
• First Posted: January 14, 2025
• Study Start: September 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Last Updated: January 29, 2026

Record last verified: 2025-11

Locations

NL (1)