Identifying the Neural Correlates of Mental Simulation in Multi-Step Planning
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Four-in-a-Row Task.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Decision Making, Cognition, Mental Simulation, Problem Solving. Basic parameters: 18 years — 64 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
Planning is the ability to think ahead by considering possible future actions and their consequences. This research study aims to understand how the brain supports multi-step planning by testing whether people simulate promising future move sequences while deciding what to do next. Healthy adult volunteers will learn and play a strategy game called "Four-in-a-Row" (similar to Connect Four). Participants will complete two sessions on successive days: an online behavioral training/playing session and an in-person brain-recording session at New York University. During the brain-recording session, participants will view mid-game board positions and choose the best move while the study team records brain activity (using magnetoencephalography \[MEG\] or functional MRI \[fMRI\]) and eye movements. Data from the game and eye tracking will also be used to fit computational models of planning that help interpret the neural measurements.
Detailed description
This is a human neuroimaging study consisting of two related experiments designed to characterize the neural correlates of mental simulation during multi-step planning in the "Four-in-a-Row" game. Planning is modeled as a feature-based heuristic evaluation combined with look-ahead (tree search) that evaluates candidate actions by simulating future states and outcomes.
Participants complete two sessions on successive days. Session 1 is a \~60-minute online behavioral session in which participants learn the rules of Four-in-a-Row (including a comprehension/quiz check) and play multiple games against computer opponents spanning difficulty levels. Behavioral data from Session 1 are used to fit a computational model of planning for each participant.
Session 2 is an in-person neuroimaging session with simultaneous eye tracking. In the MEG experiment, participants complete a feature localizer followed by a primary planning task in which they evaluate mid-game board positions with a fixed decision window (e.g., 15 seconds) to encourage planning. B2 In the fMRI experiment, participants complete a planning task while BOLD activity and eye movements are recorded, using a trial structure designed to dissociate model-derived quantities such as myopic value and tree-search value.
The main analyses will test where (fMRI) and when (MEG) the brain represents simulated future states, their values, and the evolving decision process, guided by participant-specific computational-model predictions.
Interventions
- Behavioral Four-in-a-Row Task
Deterministic, adversarial 'Four-in-a-Row' decision-making task that requires thinking multiple steps ahead. Participants complete a training/gameplay session and a laboratory session in which they choose moves from mid-game positions while behavioral responses (and eye movements, if applicable) are recorded. After the neuroimaging session, participants may play a full match outside the scanner for an additional monetary reward.
Primary outcome measures
- Percent of moves correctly predicted by the behavioral model [Time frame: 1 hour]
- MEG activity [Time frame: 1 hour]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- N/A
Exclusion criteria
- History of neurological or psychiatric illness
- Vulnerable populations
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- N/A
- Model
- Single group
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- New York University — New York
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07293637 · 24-1331 · 1R01MH134979-01A1