Hippocampal and Frontoparietal Development and Inference

Part of paid clinical trials in Austin, Texas.

Sponsor
University of Texas at Austin
Study ID
NCT07199907
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Healthy

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
13 Years - 25 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Associative Inference — BEHAVIORAL
    Objects, faces, and scenes will be arranged into 12 ABC triads presented as overlapping AB and BC pairs. AB pairs will comprise objects; BC pairs will consist of the same B object paired with a face or scene (C). Twelve non-overlapping (NO) pairs will serve as controls. Participants will study overlapping (AB, BC) and NO pairs (4s) across two 5-minute fMRI runs. Each pair will be presented three times within a run. Following learning, participants will complete a self-paced 3-alternative forced choice (AFC) inference task during which they will select the C item that shares a common relationship with an A cue. Foils for inference trials will be C items from other ABC triads, of the same face/scene subcategory. Participants will then complete a final, self-paced 3-AFC memory test of premise associations (AB, BC) and NO pairs. To quantify memory retrieval and how overlapping events are organized, before and after learning, participants will view the A and C items during fMRI scanning.
  • Probabilistic Inference — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will visit a virtual "zoo," which is divided into three zones, each containing the same five monsters, but with different likelihoods of occurrence. Participants learn the underlying likelihood distributions by virtually navigating each zone. On each trial, two monsters appear; participants select the monster that they predict will next appear (6s). After making their choice, the correct monster appears and feedback is provided (2s). Participants tour each zone four times across 9 runs. Following learning, participants are tested on probabilistic inference. Here, participants see a series of monster "photographs" and are asked to infer in which zone they were taken. On each trial, a sequence of individual monster images (3.5s each) will then appear (1-6 monsters) prior to a decision screen, in which participants choose which of the two zones most likely produced the "photos" (4s) and are given feedback (1.5s). Participants will perform nine fMRI runs of the inference task.

Study Details

The goal of this clinical trial is to test if an intervention used to manipulate memory and inference can improve our understanding of how brain development supports these abilities in healthy adolescent and adult volunteers. The main questions it aims to answer are: (1) Do hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex shift from forming simple memories for singular experiences to more complex memories that link numerous experiences together?; (2) Does an improved ability to retrieve prior memories in parietal cortex during new learning have consequences for how those memories are organized at different ages?; and (3) Does the emerging memory control supported by ventromedial prefrontal cortex development facilitate the formation of optimally-organized memory representations? Adolescent participants (13-18 years) will perform two experimental tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning at three timepoints (T1-T3), spaced 1.5 years apart. Researchers will compare behavioral and neuroimaging data to a separate group of adults (19-25 years) who will perform the task at a single timepoint (T1). The tasks and comparison groups will allow us to isolate the neural processes that support memory and inference behavior, and how these processes change with age.

Key Dates

Start date
Feb 20, 2025
Status verified
Sep 2025
Primary completion
Aug 31, 2029
Completion
Aug 31, 2029

Study Design

Enrollment
142 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE

Arms

  • Experimental: Adolescents
    Participants completed a predictable (associative inference; Session 1) and noisy (probabilistic inference; Session 2) learning task during fMRI scanning. Participants completed these tasks three times, once every 18 months.
  • Experimental: Adults
    Participants completed a predictable (associative inference; Session 1) and noisy (probabilistic inference; Session 2) learning task during fMRI scanning. Participants completed these tasks a single time, serving as a control comparison to our adolescent arm.

Primary Outcome Measure

Changes in blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal over time [ Time Frame: 36 months ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
The University of Texas at AustinAustinTexas78712
Alison R Preston, PhD
[email protected]
512-475-7255
Nicole L Varga, PhD
[email protected]
856-304-6771
Alison R Preston, PhD (PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR)

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