Hinting Task for Huntington's Disease (HT-HD)

Sensitivity of the Hinting Task in Patients With Huntington's Disease

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Huntington Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Neuropsychological assessment

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 52

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Floor Gelmers; Phone Number: +31 50 361 46 64; Email: f.gelmers@umcg.nl
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Maraike A. Coenen; Email: m.a.coenen@umcg.nl

Study Locations

• Netherlands
  • Provincie Groningen
    • Groningen, Provincie Groningen, Netherlands, 9700RB
      • Recruiting
      • University Medical Center Groningen
      • Contact: Floor Gelmers; Phone Number: +31 50 361 46 64; Email: f.gelmers@umcg.nl
      • Contact: Maraike Coenen; Email: m.a.coenen@umcg.nl
      • Principal Investigator: Maraike Coenen

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• 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.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of serious psychiatric disorders or other neurological comorbidities

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Patients with HD; Will undergo a neuropsychological assessment	Other: Neuropsychological assessment; Neuropsychological assessment consisting of tests measuring social cognition and memory

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Performance on the Hinting Task	Performance on the Hinting Task by patients with Huntington's disease compared to healthy controls	2025-2026

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Relations of the Hinting Task with other variables	Relationship of the Hinting Task with other (social) cognitive tests, disease characteristics and demographical characteristics	2025-2026

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Medical Center Groningen
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Maraike Coenen, University Medical Center Groningen

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 3, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): January 14, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 29, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 27, 2026
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Social Cognition; Theory of Mind; Huntington; Hinting Task; CAG repeat
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Genetic Diseases, Inborn; Neurocognitive Disorders; Cognition Disorders; Dementia; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Movement Disorders; Heredodegenerative Disorders, Nervous System; Basal Ganglia Diseases; Dyskinesias; Chorea; Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities; Huntington Disease; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities; Psychological Tests; Neuropsychological Tests
• Other Study ID Numbers: t.b.a

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: Data can be shared upon request.

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