LPFC Organization in Emotion-Duration Difference Estimation

Part of paid clinical trials in Santa Barbara, California.

Sponsor
University of California, Santa Barbara
Study ID
NCT06276400
Status
Recruiting
Apply to this trial

Conditions

  • Healthy

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - 45 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Emotion valence — OTHER
    Positive vs. Negative (temporally extended sequence)
  • Time — OTHER
    ∆ Temporal evidence (i.e. relative time difference of stimulus-type exposure across a sequence: 1200 vs. 1800)
  • TMS Stimulation — DEVICE
    FPl vs. mid-LPFC vs. non-PFC Control (S1); Specific LPFC region (vs. non-PFC active Control) function is manipulated with an inhibitory TMS protocol (cTBS).

Study Details

To support optimal behavior in daily life, goals and responses following emotional events should ideally incorporate not only the valence and intensity of prior emotional episodes but also their temporal features, such as the relative duration of positive vs. negative attributes. However, how specific brain regions contribute to the integration of temporal and emotional information and promote goal-directed response remains unknown. The goal of this study is to examine how specific brain regions track both emotional and temporal information of dynamic emotional events to inform other related brain regions to guide goal-oriented and context-appropriate actions. The investigators will scan healthy human participants using functional MRI (fMRI) while they view emotional image sequences and track the associated emotional and temporal (duration) information, and act accordingly. The investigators will employ multivariate patterns analysis and pattern similarity analysis to identify brain regions that represent (can decode) emotion, time, and their combined signals, as well as brain regions that represent the associated action goal. In addition, to infer the causal contributions of these brain regions in forming task-relevant representations (emotion, time, and action goal), the same participants will be recruited to receive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in these regions.

Key Dates

Start date
Jan 29, 2024
Status verified
Apr 2026
Primary completion
Mar 31, 2028
Completion
Mar 31, 2028

Study Design

Enrollment
50 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE

Arms

  • Experimental: Duration difference estimation
    Participants will view emotional sequences composed of four emotional images. They will be asked to indicate whether the total duration of positive or negative emotional events was longer, by responding with a button press to a contextual cue defining the relevant action (Left vs Right button). The amount of temporal evidence in favor of one valence in a 12-s sequence is varied orthogonally with respect to the (predominant) emotional valence by varying individual picture presentation times. Participants will undergo one fMRI session and 3 TMS+fMRI sessions (2 of the TMS sessions target prefrontal (PFC) sites, and 1 targets a non-PFC control site).

Primary Outcome Measure

Multivariate BOLD metrics [ Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 12-14 months ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
University of California, Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraCalifornia93106-

Find similar trials in Santa Barbara, CA

By research site
University of California, Santa Barbara· Santa Barbara, CA

Related Studies