Neural Mechanisms for Reducing Interference During Episodic Memory Formation

NCT05092100 | Enrolling By Invitation

• 1 other identifier: 06302015.045
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 737
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Healthy individuals from the University of Oregon and surrounding community will be recruited for participation in behavioral, fMRI and eye tracking experiments that investigate human memory. Recruitment will involve emails, flyers, and local advertisements. Individuals between the ages of 18-80 (or 18-35 for some studies) will be eligible. The broad objective of the research is to understand how humans form distinct memories for similar experiences. Experimental sessions will involve studying and trying to remember various images (e.g., images of natural scenes). The intervention will involve manipulating the similarity and/or learning protocol for the studied images. Outcome measures will include (a) behavioral measures of memory, and/or (b) fMRI measures of hemodynamic activity, and/or (c) eye tracking measures of gaze direction. Experimental sessions will last approximately 1-3 hours.

Conditions

Behavior

Keywords

behavior, memory

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Behavior

  Behavioral responses will be recorded by keyboard or external button boxes. These responses will be used to assess the accuracy with which participants remember individual images. Accuracy will be averaged across stimuli within each learning condition to obtain measures of mean memory accuracy (i.e., the percentage of stimuli that were successfully remembered) per condition and participant.

  Data will be collected over a 5 year period. Results from sub-studies will be analyzed within 6 months of the conclusion of data collection.

• fMRI pattern similarity

  fMRI will be used to measure hemodynamic (BOLD) responses as participants study images. Pattern similarity analyses will be applied to the fMRI data. Pattern similarity will be indexed by the correlation (r) between patterns of BOLD activity. Pattern similarity will be computed for images within and across different learning conditions.

  Data will be collected over a 5 year period. Results from sub-studies will be analyzed within 6 months of the conclusion of data collection.

• eye tracking

  Eye tracking equipment will be used to measure gaze direction and fixations as participants study images. These data will be used to calculate variables such as the number of saccades (eye movements) made and the percentage of time (within each trial) spent looking at each portion of an image. Data from individual trials will be averaged across trials within each learning condition. This will yield mean values per condition and participant.

  Data will be collected over a 5 year period. Results from sub-studies will be analyzed within 6 months of the conclusion of data collection.

Study Arms (3)

Behavioral

EXPERIMENTAL

This arm will use behavioral procedures to test memory for different visual stimulus conditions.

Behavioral: Visual stimulus similarity

fMRI pattern similarity

EXPERIMENTAL

This arm will use fMRI and behavioral methods to test memory for different visual stimulus conditions.

Behavioral: Visual stimulus similarity; Other: fMRI

eye tracking

EXPERIMENTAL

This arm will use eye tracking and behavioral methods to test memory for different visual stimulus conditions.

Behavioral: Visual stimulus similarity; Behavioral: Eye tracking

Interventions

Visual stimulus similarity BEHAVIORAL

Visual stimulus similarity will be varied in order to test for effects on memory. Learning protocol (the order and frequency with which stimuli are learned) will also be varied.

Also known as: Learning protocol

Behavioral; eye tracking; fMRI pattern similarity

fMRI OTHER

fMRI will be used to measure patterns of BOLD activity during learning.

fMRI pattern similarity

Eye tracking BEHAVIORAL

Eye tracking will be used to measure patterns of eye movements when viewing images.

eye tracking

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants in behavioral studies must be:
• healthy and between the ages of 18-35 years old
• native English speakers
• right-handed.
• Participants in fMRI studies must be:
• healthy and between the ages of 18-80 years old
• native English speakers
• right-handed.

You may not qualify if:

• For behavioral studies:
• For fMRI studies:
• For some sub-studies, individuals older than age 35 will be excluded because of potential differences in cognitive and brain function across age groups that are beyond the scope of the proposed studies.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oregon: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon, 97403, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Behavior

Study Officials

• Brice A Kuhl, Ph.D.

  University of Oregon

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 15, 2021
• First Posted: October 25, 2021
• Study Start: September 29, 2021
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2025
• Study Completion: January 1, 2026
• Last Updated: September 19, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data will be made available approximately at the time of (or before) manuscript publication. At the latest, data will be made available 1 year after manuscript publication.
• Access Criteria: Data will be publicly accessible.

Locations

US (1)