Eye Gaze Strategies During Facial Emotion Recognition in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Links With Neuropsychiatric Disorders (EYE-ToM Study)

Eye Gaze Strategies During Facial Emotion Recognition in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Links With Neuropsychiatric Disorders (EYE-ToM Study)

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.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Hospitalized or coming to perform a consultation, for whom an Eye-Tracking examination is indicated as part of routine care.
• Sufficient written and oral expression in French.
• Written informed consent signed by the patient.
• For the control group: No cognitive impairment (non pathological MMSE (according to age, gender and socio-cultural level), no neurological history, and no psychiatric history (especially anxiety and depressive disorders).
• For the FTD group: Patient diagnosed according to revised Rascovsky et al. 2011., no neurological history (excepted diagnosed FTD), and no psychiatric history (excepted those related to diagnosed FTD).
• For the AD group: Patient diagnosed according to DSM-IV-TR criteria, no neurological history (excepted diagnosed AD), and no psychiatric history (excepted those related to diagnosed AD).
• For the PD group: Patient diagnosed according to NINDS criteria, no neurological history (excepted diagnosed PD), and no psychiatric history (excepted those related to diagnosed PD).

Exclusion Criteria:

• General anaesthesia within 3 months.
• Ophthalmological problems preventing a video-oculography examination.
• Oculomotor disorders such as "fixation disorders" or "ocular tracking disorders".
• Cognitive disorders of the type: visual agnosia, visuo-spatial disorder, visuo-perceptual disorder or aphasia.
• History of stroke.
• History of alcohol or drug abuse.