Neural Bases of Decision-making in Healthy Individuals
- Conditions
- Healthy Volunteers
- Interventions
- Other: No intervention
- Registration Number
- NCT05774834
- Lead Sponsor
- Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA
- Brief Summary
The goal of this single center non-interventional fMRI study is to assess the neural bases of decision-making and executive functioning in healthy individuals,and whether/how their responsiveness is modulated by ageing. The main questions it aims to answer are:
1. are there specific neural correlates for ageing effects on executive functioning (particularly inhibitory control) and decision-making?
2. Is there a relationship, at the behavioral and neural levels, between ageing-related changes in executive functioning and decision-making?
Healthy participants will be recruited for
1. a behavioral assessment including multiple tests of decision-making and executive functioning/inhibitory control;
2. a fMRI session to collect data concerning a) brain activity associated with decision-making and executive functioning, b) brain structural morphometriy (grey-matter volume/density), and c) brain structural connectivity (diffusion weighted imaging).
Results will provide an useful baseline for investigating alterations of decision-making and executive functioning, and of their neural bases, in pathological conditions.
- Detailed Description
The fast growth of Decision Neuroscience is contributing to unveil the cognitive processes underlying choices and their neural bases. The results obtained so far show that decision-making involves neural mechanisms underpinning a complex balance between automatic appetitive or aversive drives generated by subcortical structures, and processes of executive control centered in fronto-parietal brain networks. While the role of meso-limbic structures in reinforcement learning have been widely investigated, it is much less clear to what extent are choices shaped by a) individual differences in executive skills; b) contextual factors potentially interfering with such skills, such as knowing that the outcome of those choices will impact only on one's own vs. another's welfare. This a critical gap, since executive abilities are known to decline even in physiological ageing, thus potentially interfering with the quality of choices. On this ground, this single center non-interventional fMRI study aims to provide novel insights into the relationship between executive and decision-making skills, and their possible changes with ageing, in 150 healthy individuals. This goal will be pursued by combining a behavioral assessment of decision-making and executive skills with a multimodal fMRI session including data concerning a) brain activity associated with decision-making and executive functioning in social vs. non-social contexts, b) brain structural morphometry (grey-matter volume/density), and c) brain structural connectivity (diffusion weighted imaging). The behavioral assessment will involve the main metric of decision-making (e.g., risk aversion, loss aversion, delay discounting) and executive functioning (e.g., selective attention and inhibitory control). MRI data will unveil the neural bases of individual differences in decision-making and executive performance in terms of performance-related patterns of brain activity, structure and connectivity. Results will provide an useful baseline for investigating alterations of decision-making and executive functioning, and of their neural bases, in pathological conditions.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- RECRUITING
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 150
- Healthy participants, as determined by screening assessments and principal investigator judgment
- The participant must be able to comply with study requirements as judged by the principal investigator
- Any history of alcohol and/or drug abuse, addiction or suspicion of regular consumption of drugs of abuse
- Use of any psychoactive medication, or medications known to have effect on central nervous system (CNS) or blood flow
- Any contraindications for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans or any brain/head abnormalities restricting MRI eligibility
Study & Design
- Study Type
- OBSERVATIONAL
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description All healthy participants No intervention All healthy participants will undergo behavioral assessment and fMRI
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Behavioral performance 1: Decision-making skills MRI-acquisition day 1 Participants' decision-making performance will be assessed in terms of "loss aversion" (i.e., the overweighting of potential losses compared with gains), after removing the potential confounding effect of risk aversion
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Behavioral performance 2: Executive functioning skills MRI-acquisition day 1 Participants' executive performance will be assessed in terms of well-know metrics such as selective attention and inhibitory control, measured with the Stroop Task and the Stop-Signal-Task, respectively.
Brain activity underlying decision-making and executive performance MRI-acquisition day 1 Standard pipelines and pre-processing of fMRI task-related data will be used to detect regional changes of brain activity associated with individual differences in decision-making and executive performance.
Brain structure related to decision-making and executive performance MRI-acquisition day 1 Standard pipelines and pre-processing of MRI T1-weighted data will be used to detect patterns of GM volume/density and structural connectivity associated with individual differences in decision-making and executive performance.
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA
🇮🇹Pavia, Ita, Italy