Movie-Watching Functional MRI for Mapping Brain Function in Neurosurgical Patients

NCT07650994 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: 2026P001172R01DC020965
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 90
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This research will compare a new type of functional MRI (fMRI) called naturalistic viewing (also called movie watching) to standard clinical fMRI techniques. Standard clinical fMRI currently uses multiple tasks such as reading and responding to words or sentences to determine which areas of the brain are responsible for language. Surgeons can use this information to help plan brain surgeries. This research will help determine if the movie-watching fMRI is equivalent or better than the standard task-based fMRI. If so, it could be useful for planning patients' surgeries in the future, without the need for multiple tasks.

Conditions

Glioma; Brain Tumor Adult

Keywords

Movie Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Clinical Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Presurgical Planning; Presurgical Brain Mapping

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Language localization

  Sensitivity and specificity based on the proportion of activation within and outside of language regions-of-interest (ROIs).

  From enrollment to up to 6 months after brain surgery.

• Language lateralization

  Laterality index (LI) based on proportion of activation in the left vs. right hemisphere in language regions-of-interest (ROIs).

  From enrollment to up to 6 months after brain surgery.

• FMRI language activations concordance with language fiber tracts

  Concordance with language fiber tracts identified by diffusion MRI in terms of the Euclidean distance between fMRI language activations and the tracts.

  From enrollment to up to 6 months after brain surgery.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Quality metrics based on electrocortical stimulation (ECS)

  From enrollment to up to 6 months after brain surgery.

Study Arms (1)

FMRI and Neuropsychological Assessments

EXPERIMENTAL

Other: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Behavioral: Neuropsychological Assessments

Interventions

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) OTHER

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a type of non-invasive imaging that measures blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes in the brain when a task is performed (such as reading) or BOLD signal changes during resting or watching naturalistic stimuli (such as movie clips).

Also known as: fMRI

FMRI and Neuropsychological Assessments

Neuropsychological Assessments BEHAVIORAL

Neuropsychological assessments are standardized tests used to evaluate cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functions that reflect the performance of different brain systems. These tests can be on paper or on a computer.

FMRI and Neuropsychological Assessments

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years - 70 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Any sex, age between 21 to 70 years;
• Known or suspected glioma (lesion) of the brain;
• English speaking;
• Patients with clinical fMRI scheduled (or pending scheduling) for presurgical planning at BWH ordered by a BWH clinician;
• Passes prescreening and standard of care screenings for 3 Tesla MRI;
• Willing to participate in the additional study scan and neuropsychological assessment visit;
• Informed consent form signed by the subject or legally acceptable representative.

You may not qualify if:

• Contraindications to MRI: Note: MRI screening will be performed by radiology staff as part of their standard process for their clinical scans and if subjects do not pass the screen, MRI will not be performed.
• Pregnancy or possible pregnancy: Female participants under 55 (or 45 with menstrual cycle in the past 12 months) who may be pregnant. Per policy: potential subjects will be asked if they are pregnant and excluded if they say yes. If unsure, pregnancy testing will be performed. Any subjects with positive result will be excluded.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brigham and Women's Hospital: lead
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

Location

Related Publications (12)

• Hasson U, Nir Y, Levy I, Fuhrmann G, Malach R. Intersubject synchronization of cortical activity during natural vision. Science. 2004 Mar 12;303(5664):1634-40. doi: 10.1126/science.1089506.

  PMID: 15016991 BACKGROUND

• Hasson U, Malach R, Heeger DJ. Reliability of cortical activity during natural stimulation. Trends Cogn Sci. 2010 Jan;14(1):40-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.10.011. Epub 2009 Dec 11.

  PMID: 20004608 BACKGROUND

• Black DF, Vachha B, Mian A, Faro SH, Maheshwari M, Sair HI, Petrella JR, Pillai JJ, Welker K. American Society of Functional Neuroradiology-Recommended fMRI Paradigm Algorithms for Presurgical Language Assessment. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2017 Oct;38(10):E65-E73. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A5345. Epub 2017 Aug 31.

  PMID: 28860215 BACKGROUND

• Sair HI, Yahyavi-Firouz-Abadi N, Calhoun VD, Airan RD, Agarwal S, Intrapiromkul J, Choe AS, Gujar SK, Caffo B, Lindquist MA, Pillai JJ. Presurgical brain mapping of the language network in patients with brain tumors using resting-state fMRI: Comparison with task fMRI. Hum Brain Mapp. 2016 Mar;37(3):913-23. doi: 10.1002/hbm.23075. Epub 2015 Dec 10.

  PMID: 26663615 BACKGROUND

• Tie Y, Rigolo L, Ozdemir Ovalioglu A, Olubiyi O, Doolin KL, Mukundan S Jr, Golby AJ. A New Paradigm for Individual Subject Language Mapping: Movie-Watching fMRI. J Neuroimaging. 2015 Sep-Oct;25(5):710-20. doi: 10.1111/jon.12251. Epub 2015 May 12.

  PMID: 25962953 BACKGROUND

• Rigolo L, Stern E, Deaver P, Golby AJ, Mukundan S Jr. Development of a clinical functional magnetic resonance imaging service. Neurosurg Clin N Am. 2011 Apr;22(2):307-14, x. doi: 10.1016/j.nec.2011.01.001.

  PMID: 21435578 BACKGROUND

• Jaaskelainen IP, Koskentalo K, Balk MH, Autti T, Kauramaki J, Pomren C, Sams M. Inter-subject synchronization of prefrontal cortex hemodynamic activity during natural viewing. Open Neuroimag J. 2008;2:14-9. doi: 10.2174/1874440000802010014. Epub 2008 Apr 1.

  PMID: 19018313 BACKGROUND

• Finn ES, Glerean E, Khojandi AY, Nielson D, Molfese PJ, Handwerker DA, Bandettini PA. Idiosynchrony: From shared responses to individual differences during naturalistic neuroimaging. Neuroimage. 2020 Jul 15;215:116828. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116828. Epub 2020 Apr 7.

  PMID: 32276065 BACKGROUND

• Yao S, Rigolo L, Yang F, Vangel MG, Wang H, Golby AJ, Liebenthal E, Tie Y. Movie-watching fMRI for presurgical language mapping in patients with brain tumour. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2022 Feb;93(2):220-221. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2020-325738. Epub 2021 Jun 25. No abstract available.

  PMID: 34172562 BACKGROUND

• Unadkat P, Fumagalli L, Rigolo L, Vangel MG, Young GS, Huang R, Mukundan S Jr, Golby A, Tie Y. Functional MRI Task Comparison for Language Mapping in Neurosurgical Patients. J Neuroimaging. 2019 May;29(3):348-356. doi: 10.1111/jon.12597. Epub 2019 Jan 16.

  PMID: 30648771 BACKGROUND

• Tikka P, Kauttonen J, Hlushchuk Y. Narrative comprehension beyond language: Common brain networks activated by a movie and its script. PLoS One. 2018 Jul 3;13(7):e0200134. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200134. eCollection 2018.

  PMID: 29969491 BACKGROUND

• Wilson SM, Molnar-Szakacs I, Iacoboni M. Beyond superior temporal cortex: intersubject correlations in narrative speech comprehension. Cereb Cortex. 2008 Jan;18(1):230-42. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhm049. Epub 2007 May 15.

  PMID: 17504783 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Glioma

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Neoplasms, Neuroepithelial; Neuroectodermal Tumors; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial; Neoplasms, Nerve Tissue

Study Officials

• Yanmei Tie, PhD

  Brigham and Women's Hospital

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Yanmei Tie, PhD

CONTACT

617-378-2649; ytie@bwh.harvard.edu

Laura Rigolo

CONTACT

617-732-5192; lrigolo@bwh.harvard.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: DIAGNOSTIC
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 11, 2026
• First Posted: June 16, 2026
• Study Start (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 31, 2029
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 31, 2029
• Last Updated: June 22, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-06

Locations

US (1)