Metacognitive function in dementia and Parkinson’s disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating metacognition in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.\n\n
IRAS ID
228311
Contact name
Jonathan Huntley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
A major aspect of normal cognitive function is the ability to self-evaluate our thinking and behaviour, for instance by detecting when we have made an error or gaining confidence that a decision was correct. This ability, known as “metacognition”, is central to effective behavioural control. Within dementia, metacognitive deficits may be associated with greater disability and functional impairment, however the extent of metacognitive deficits and their association with other cognitive domains in dementia remains poorly understood. \n\nThis project aims to improve our understanding of the extent of metacognitive impairment in two major forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD). It is hypothesised that patients with mild AD will demonstrate more impairment in metacognitive ability compared to patients with PDD at a similar stage of disease. This study will improve our ability to clinically differentiate between these subtypes of dementia, further understand the differential cognitive deficits at the early stages of these diseases and provide a basis for novel methods of cognitive training that target metacognition to improve this important function. \nThe study has two stages. Firstly, an initial pilot of the metacognitive tasks, followed by a cross sectional study of metacognition in patients with AD and PDD, using established simple computer based tasks that assess metacognitive ability for perception and memory. Recognized tasks of memory and executive function will also be used to assess these abilities in patients at the early stages of disease.\nThe second stage will examine the underlying neural mechanisms of metacognition by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan a subset of patients while they perform simple computer-based metacognitive tasks. In both stages, participants will be asked to self-evaluate their performance on these tasks through a secondary judgement, such as indicating their confidence or whether they made an error. \n
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
17/WA/0416
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion