Investigating the Cognitive Processes That Underlie Social Knowledge and Behavior
Completed
Conditions studied: Healthy
In brief
The purpose of the protocol is to localize the neural regions and systems mediating the forms of knowledge representations hypothesized by the principal investigator to be stored in the human prefrontal cortex. Utilizing a variety of experimental neuropsychological tasks during functional MRI, we will investigate hypotheses regarding the role of the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in social cognition and emotional processing. We will ascertain the relationship between so-called cold cognition such as event knowledge and "hot" social cognition such as attitude formation and specific brain regions within the prefrontal cortex. We will also attempt to determine the relationship between non-frontal neural structures involved in emotional expressions, such as amygdala, and those frontal neural structures involved in executive functions that may modulate emotion. The data that we collect in this protocol will be of value in (1) identifying a set of neural regions and distributed networks mediating the forms of knowledge representation stored in the prefrontal cortex and (2) developing functional MRI screening measures for subjects at-risk for developing a neurological disorder. We will also use the data obtained in these studies with healthy adult volunteers to constrain theories of frontal lobe function based on the study of patients with focal or diffuse frontal lobe lesions and to provide convergent evidence for the role of specific frontal cortex sectors in specific cognitive functions.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00061334
- Run by
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
- People needed
- 222
- Starts
- 2003-05-07
- Expected to finish
- 2011-12-29
- Last updated by the study team
- 2017-07-02
Who can join
Age: 21 and older, up to 65. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may not qualify if…
- Individuals with a neurological or psychiatric history or medical condition that would compromise our interpretation of the fMRI results will be excluded.
- Exclusion criteria are: medical contraindications to MRI procedures (e.g. pacemakers, cochlear devices, surgical clips); technical contraindications to MRI procedures (e.g. no braces); CNS active medications; and claustrophobia.
- Pregnant women will also be excluded from participation due to the unknown effects of the high magnetic field on a developing fetus; to ensure compliance with this criterion, all women will undergo a pregnancy test within 24 hours prior to the scan. The results of the pregnancy test must be negative in order for the women to be scanned.
Where it is running
- National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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