Metacognitive ability in Functional Cognitive Disorder
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating Metacognition in Functional Cognitive Disorder and healthy older adults.
IRAS ID
245999
Contact name
Rohan Bhome
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2018/05/57, UCL Data Protection
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Metacognitive ability in Functional Cognitive Disorder\n\nFunctional cognitive disorder (FCD) describes persistent and genuinely experienced subjective cognitive difficulties in the absence of underlying neurodegenerative pathology (Schmidtke et al., 2008). It affects at least 10% of all patients attending memory clinics with the number rising to about one third of those patients aged less than sixty (Pennington et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is associated with significant psychosocial burden and distress (Schmidtke et al., 2008).\n\nThere is no evidence base or informed consensus on optimal treatment for these patients. A unifying feature of FCD appears to be deficits in metacognition (Metternich et al., 2009). This is the ability to self-evaluate our cognitive performance and behaviour, for instance by detecting when we have made an error or gaining confidence that a decision was correct. \n\nCarpenter et al (under review) demonstrated that in healthy volunteers the ability to introspect and make judgements about self-performance can be systematically improved through training. Such potential for enhancement of metacognitive abilities through training provides an opportunity to improve metacognition in patient groups such as those with FCD.\n\nThis study has two aims which will be investigated in two stages. Firstly, a cross-sectional study of metacognition in patients with FCD, using established simple computer based tasks that assess metacognitive ability for perception and memory will be undertaken to establish whether these patients do have objective metacognitive deficits. Secondly, whether a computer based training paradigm (Carpenter et al., under review) is feasible and effective in patients with FCD. Participants will be recruited from tertiary NHS neuropsychiatry centres in England. \nAdditionally, we will similarly investigate the metacognitive ability of healthy older adults as this is yet to be evaluated and would provide an important comparison for any future work studying metacognition in neurodegenerative disorders. Participants will be recruited through Join Dementia Research. \n
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1056
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jun 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion