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LPFC Organization in Emotion-Duration Difference Estimation

NCT06276400 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2026-05-04

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

To support optimal behavior in daily life, goals and responses following emotional events should ideally incorporate not only the valence and intensity of prior emotional episodes but also their temporal features, such as the relative duration of positive vs. negative attributes. However, how specific brain regions contribute to the integration of temporal and emotional information and promote goal-directed response remains unknown.

The goal of this study is to examine how specific brain regions track both emotional and temporal information of dynamic emotional events to inform other related brain regions to guide goal-oriented and context-appropriate actions. The investigators will scan healthy human participants using functional MRI (fMRI) while they view emotional image sequences and track the associated emotional and temporal (duration) information, and act accordingly. The investigators will employ multivariate patterns analysis and pattern similarity analysis to identify brain regions that represent (can decode) emotion, time, and their combined signals, as well as brain regions that represent the associated action goal. In addition, to infer the causal contributions of these brain regions in forming task-relevant representations (emotion, time, and action goal), the same participants will be recruited to receive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in these regions.

Conditions

  • Healthy

Interventions

OTHER

Emotion valence

Positive vs. Negative (temporally extended sequence)

OTHER

Time

∆ Temporal evidence (i.e. relative time difference of stimulus-type exposure across a sequence: 1200 vs. 1800)

DEVICE

TMS Stimulation

FPl vs. mid-LPFC vs. non-PFC Control (S1); Specific LPFC region (vs. non-PFC active Control) function is manipulated with an inhibitory TMS protocol (cTBS).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of California, Santa Barbara

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Regina Lapate, Ph.D. · University of California, Santa Barbara

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
45 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-01-29
Primary Completion
2028-03-31
Completion
2028-03-31

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 NCT06276400 on ClinicalTrials.gov