Functional Neuro-Imaging of Strategy Use During Human Behavior
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 16
- 试验地点
- 1
研究概览
简要总结
This study will locate areas in the brain that help people devise action plans to carry out complex tasks requiring use of strategy. The ability to plan strategically is impaired in patients who have had a stroke affecting the front parts of the brain. This study will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the activity of different areas of the brain during the formulation and execution of plans.
Right-handed healthy volunteers between 18 and 60 years of age may be eligible for this study. Participants come to the NIH Clinical Center four to five times to complete the following procedures:
Visit 1 - Screening
- Medical history
- Physical and neurological examinations
Visit 2 - MRI brain scan (if one has not been done within the past year)
MRI - This test uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to obtain images of the brain. The scanner is a metal cylinder surrounded by a magnetic field. The subject lies on a table that can slide in and out of the scanner, wearing earplugs to muffle loud noises that occur during the scanning.
Visits 3 to 5 - Task training sessions and two fMRI scans
Functional MRI involves taking MRI scans while the subject performs a task in order to learn about changes in brain regions that are involved in the performance of the task. Subjects are trained in two tasks (see below) and then perform the tasks while in the MRI scanner.
- Task 1: The subject presses computer keys in response to the direction of arrows shown on the computer screen. The keys are pressed according to a given set of rules the subject is taught.
- Task 2: This task is similar to task 1, but the subject is also asked to remember certain previous actions and responses.
详细描述
OBJECTIVES
Efficient behavior requires the ability to generalize from previous experiences. This can be achieved by behavioral strategies. We use many behavioral strategies; some strategies have strict S-R associations -stop at the RED light-; others are modifiable -balancing skills of a ballerina that becomes very useful during rock climbing- and serve as abstract strategies that enable solving problems.
Strategy use is common in our behavioral repertoire. A strategy can be defined as a set of computations associated with the act of planning and directing overall operations and movements involved in a task. A behavioral strategy that conscious behaving primates spontaneously adopted in order to maximize their rewards have been well characterized in the literature. These are called "Repeat-Stay"/"Change-Shift" strategy, and were shown to be associated with prefrontal neuronal activity during multi-unit intra-cortical recordings, clearly indicating a special role played by the prefrontal cortex in computing strategy use. It is important to understand how the human brain computes and processes strategies. This study aims at understanding the activation patterns, and neuronal connectivity in the human brain when engaged in tasks that require strategies. We hypothesize that application of strategies to solve tasks would show specifically and significantly increase Blood Oxygenation Dependant (BOLD) signal, particularly the fronto-polar cortex (PFp), ventral and orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex (PFV+o) in the human brains.
STUDY POPULATION
The two experiments described in this protocol may recruit up to 61 (6 for the pilot study) adult healthy volunteers.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Observational
- 时间视角
- Prospective
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 60 Years（Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- 未提供
排除标准
- 未提供