Decision-Making in Schizophrenia: A Combined Neuroimaging and Experience Sampling Study

Part of paid clinical trials in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Sponsor
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Study ID
NCT06745479
Status
Recruiting
Apply to this trial

Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - 50 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Positive Emotion Upregulation — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will identify personal goals or activities that they would like to engage in more and describe these goals/activities in a written format with research staff. Participants will then complete a gambling task during functional MRI scanning. Prior to making some gambling decisions, participants are instructed to mentally imagine achieving a goal or engaging in an enjoyable activity. Prior to the other decisions participants are instructed to respond naturally (i.e., not use the cognitive strategy).

Study Details

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if attention and ways of thinking impact decision-making and brain processes related to decision-making in people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder relative to people without either condition. It will also learn how brain functioning during decision-making relates to real-world decisions made during daily life. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does paying attention to specific information impact decision-making and brain processes? * Does thinking in a certain way according to specific 'thinking strategies' improve brain processes related to decision-making? * Does brain functioning during decision-making relate to real-world choices to engage in activities? Researchers will compare brain functioning and decision-making on computer tasks of gambling after participants have been trained to use a positive thinking strategy. They will compare what is different in the brain and behavior when participants use this strategy and when they do not. Participants will also answer brief surveys about activities and feelings for a week in their daily lives. Participants will: * Complete several hours of clinical interviewing, cognitive tests, and surveys of about symptoms, experiences, and personality * Complete computer tasks about gambling decisions during MRI brain scanning and while having their visual attention measured using eye-tracking * Complete brief surveys about their activities and feelings 5 times a day for 1 week using a cell phone. Each survey only take several minutes.

Key Dates

Start date
Jan 7, 2025
Status verified
Mar 2026
Primary completion
Apr 30, 2027
Completion
Jun 30, 2027

Study Design

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

Arms

  • Experimental: Single Arm
    There is only 1 arm in this study. In this arm of the study, participants are instructed to implement a cognitive strategy (i.e., way of thinking) during 1/2 of the trials of a behavioral, gambling task. On the other 1/2 of the trials they behave naturally without implementing the cognitive strategy.

Primary Outcome Measure

Nucleus Accumbens Brain Activation [ Time Frame: Single timeframe during 1.5 hours of MRI scanning and behavioral task completion. ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging ResearchPiscatawayNew Jersey08854
Pariya Chanthasensack, BS
[email protected]
732-235-6438
John R Purcell, PhD
[email protected]
732-235-6438
David H Zald, PhD (PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR)

Find similar trials in Piscataway, NJ

By condition
Schizophrenia
By specialty
PsychiatryMental healthBehavioral health
By research site
Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research· Piscataway, NJ

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