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Causal Evidence for Task Regulation by Anterior Cingulate Cortex

NCT04650425 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 200

Last updated 2023-12-05

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The exact function of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is one of the largest riddles in cognitive neuroscience and a major challenge in mental health research. ACC dysfunction contributes to a broad spectrum of neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as depression, ADHD, Parkinson's disease, OCD and many others, but nobody knows what it actually does. Recently a new theory has been developed about ACC function; the HRL-ACC (Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Theory of ACC). This theory proposes that the ACC selects and motivates high-level tasks based on the principles of hierarchical reinforcement learning. The ACC associates values with tasks (these values are based on the reward positivity produced by the midbrain dopamine system), selects the correct tasks and applies control over other neural networks (such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia), which execute the tasks. The goal of this study is to investigate the consequences of ACC damage (and other areas of the frontal lobe) on task regulation within a group of patients who have suffered a stroke in the frontal lobe. Furthermore, the correlation between ACC damage and mood disorders such as depression and apathy is going to be investigated.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive tasks

Patients will perform the coffee-tea task and the virtual T-maze task, both in the acute and chronic phase after stroke.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Neurology

    collaborator UNKNOWN

  • University Hospital, Ghent

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Veerle De Herdt · University Hospital Ghent, Department of Neurology

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-04-29
Primary Completion
2024-09-30
Completion
2024-09-30

Countries

  • Belgium

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

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 NCT04650425 on ClinicalTrials.gov