Enhancing Social Interaction With an AlterEgo Artificial Agent (ALTEREGO)

The objective of AlterEgo is the creation of an interactive cognitive architecture, implementable in various artificial agents, allowing a continuous interaction with patients suffering from social disorders, by virtue of changes in behavioural (robot-based) as well as morphological (avatar-based) properties of that agent. The project includes research in fundamental and clinical neurosciences, interaction modeling, development of new computer-vision techniques and human-robot interfaces, as well as evaluation of the scenarios with patients before, during, and after training sessions. At the end of the project, the investigators will produce a new avatar-based clinical method able to enhance social interaction of patients.

The first challenge of this project is to create an avatar alter ego of a patient. Based on recent work in social robotics and neurosciences, the investigators hypothesize that if patients face artificial agents morphologically and behaviourally similar to them, they will increase their social interaction. The second challenge is to transform the morphology and the behaviour of the similar artificial agent into that of a healthy and different agent. The investigators assume that the smooth and continuous behavioural shift from similar/unhealthy to complementary/healthy social behaviour will lead to a better social rehabilitation. AlterEgo opens the door to a new generation of social artificial agents in service robotics. AlterEgo is an interdisciplinary project at the interaction of Social Motor Neurosciences (UM1), Robotics (EPFL), Complex Systems Dynamics (UOB), Computer Vision (DFKI), and Psychiatry (CHU).

This project includes a set of experiments that started in april 2014 and will terminate in september 2016 before undergoing a randomised clinical research.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Schizophrenia
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Social Skills training with Avatar therapist

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 246
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Montpellier, France, 34295
    • Recruiting
    • Service Universitaire de psychiatrie adulte, University Hospital of Montpellier
    • Contact: Stéphane Raffard, PhD; Phone Number: 0033467339702; Email: s-raffard@chu-montpellier.fr
    • Contact: Delphine Capdevielle; Phone Number: 0033467339727; Email: d-capdevielle@chu-montpellier.fr

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients suffering from schizophrenia according to the criteria proposed in the DSM-IV-TR
• Aged between 18 and 60 years old.

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of head trauma
• History of neurological disorders (epilepsy disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, stroke)
• An actual ECT treatment
• Substance Abuse and / or current Substance dependence (excluding tobacco and cannabis).
• Pregnant women, new mothers and nursing mothers
• People private of their liberty

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Patients with schizophrenia	Other: Social Skills training with Avatar therapist
Placebo Comparator: Healthy volunteers	Other: Social Skills training with Avatar therapist

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
number of patient enhancing social intercation	improvement of social interactions (interpersonal relations, items 1 to 7 on Specific Levels Of Functioning, SLOF)	3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
number of patient accepting avatar therapy	3 months
questionnaire for Faisability of avatar therapy	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Montpellier
• Collaborators: University of Bristol; Université Montpellier; Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; DEUTSCHES FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUER KUENSTLICHE

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 29, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): August 25, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): August 25, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2016
• Last Verified: August 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: U 9038

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No