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Investigating the Cognitive Processes That Underlie Social Knowledge and Behavior

NCT00061334 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 222

Last updated 2017-07-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The purpose of the protocol is to localize the neural regions and systems mediating the forms of knowledge representations hypothesized by the principal investigator to be stored in the human prefrontal cortex. Utilizing a variety of experimental neuropsychological tasks during functional MRI, we will investigate hypotheses regarding the role of the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in social cognition and emotional processing. We will ascertain the relationship between so-called cold cognition such as event knowledge and "hot" social cognition such as attitude formation and specific brain regions within the prefrontal cortex. We will also attempt to determine the relationship between non-frontal neural structures involved in emotional expressions, such as amygdala, and those frontal neural structures involved in executive functions that may modulate emotion. The data that we collect in this protocol will be of value in (1) identifying a set of neural regions and distributed networks mediating the forms of knowledge representation stored in the prefrontal cortex and (2) developing functional MRI screening measures for subjects at-risk for developing a neurological disorder. We will also use the data obtained in these studies with healthy adult volunteers to constrain theories of frontal lobe function based on the study of patients with focal or diffuse frontal lobe lesions and to provide convergent evidence for the role of specific frontal cortex sectors in specific cognitive functions.

Conditions

  • Healthy

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

    lead NIH

Eligibility

Min Age
21 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2003-05-07
Completion
2011-12-29

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00061334 on ClinicalTrials.gov