The neural basis of task-set preparation.

Conditions: focus op het gezonde brein
nvt

Registration Number: NL-OMON30189

Lead Sponsor: niversiteit Leiden

Brief Summary: Not available

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Pending

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 24

Inclusion Criteria

Adult subjects (18 -30 years of age) with no history of neurological disorder/disease and no counter-indications to MRI will be included in this study. All participants will be right-handed native Dutch speakers with normal vision or contact lenses.

Exclusion Criteria

Potential participants will be prescreened for contra-indications for fMRI, which include metal implants, heart arrhythmia, claustrophobia, and possible pregnancy (in adult females). They will additionally be prescreened for head trauma, premature birth, learning disabilities, and history of neurological or psychiatric illness and/or use of psychotropic medications. Because of the difficulties in interpreting cognitive studies in subjects with Dutch as a second language, only native-Dutch speakers will be asked to participate in the study. Finally, left-handed individuals will be excluded from the study because some left-handers have substantially different brain organization relative to right-handers.

Study & Design

Study Type: Observational non invasive

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>In line with previous research (e.g., Rogers & Monsell, 1995), we expect that<br /><br>reaction times will be longer and error rates higher on task-switch as compared<br /><br>to task-repetition trials. Furthermore, this switch cost will decrease with<br /><br>longer preparation intervals.<br /><br>Following presentation of the cue, we expect to find increased activity<br /><br>in task-specific areas in the occipito-temporal cortex (fusiform face area and<br /><br>visual word form area), parieto-occiptal brain areas that code for the location<br /><br>of the upcoming stimulus, and motor cortex contralateral to the task-relevant<br /><br>hand.<br /><br>We will perform several analyses (e.g., using bin analyses or<br /><br>cross-subject correlations) to investigate whether, as we expect, preparatory<br /><br>activity in task-specific areas predicts performance on the corresponding<br /><br>trials.</p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures