Real-time fMRI for Insular Cortex Brain State-triggered Experience Sampling

NCT ID: NCT05855525

Last Updated: 2025-08-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 60 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-02-15
• Study Completion Date: 2025-11-30

Brief Summary

In a neuroimaging session, study participants will repeatedly and intermittently report the content of their ongoing, self-generated experiences based on an experience-sampling protocol in which self-report ratings will be triggered based on real-time analysis of the participant's current brain state. The protocol will be conducted while participants are undergoing MRI scanning.

Detailed Description

The investigators will develop a new approach called real-time functional MRI (fMRI)-triggered experience-sampling to efficiently sample spontaneous neural events (of a predefined type) and to map those events to specific qualities of self-generated experiences. Within 60 healthy adults, the investigators will use online (real-time) fMRI analysis to detect brain activations and trigger the appearance of visual rating scales so that participants can report their experiences immediately after the occurrence of a neural event of interest. The investigators will develop and validate the approach with a focus on real-time fMRI analysis of the dorsal anterior insular cortex (daIC), a brain region implicated in salience detection that is consistently identified as having aberrant structure, function, and connectivity in psychiatric illness at a transdiagnostic level. Aim 1 is to determine whether spontaneous daIC activation events are time-locked to instances of salient, high-arousal self-generated experience. The investigators will sample self-generated experiences both during instances of daIC activation and during baseline (intermediate daIC activity) events. The investigators hypothesize that daIC activation, relative to baseline events, will be time-locked to self-generated experiences with higher subjective ratings of arousal and vividness (regardless of affective valence). Aim 2 is to determine how distinct instances of daIC activation are coupled to physiological and whole-brain activity. Using a hypothesis-driven approach, the investigators will determine whether spontaneous fMRI activations in the daIC are associated with pupil dilation and activation of the locus coeruleus, a subcortical generator of arousal-related neuromodulation. Additionally, using a more data-driven approach, the investigators will test whether different instances of daIC activation are associated with multiple, distinct whole-brain co-activation patterns, and whether these co-activation patterns are associated with fluctuations in subjective affect (positive vs. negative experiences). If successful, the protocols can later be applied in patients with psychiatric illness and to potentially guide the development of interventions (e.g., neurostimulation, neurofeedback) that aim to target the neural processes that produce self-generated experiences that are core to mental illness.

Conditions

Healthy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Real-time fMRI

Participants will repeatedly and intermittently report the content of their ongoing, self-generated experiences based on an experience-sampling protocol in which self-report ratings will be triggered based on real-time analysis of the participant's current brain state. The protocol will be conducted while participants are undergoing MRI scanning.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Experience sampling

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will repeatedly and intermittently report the content of their ongoing, self-generated experiences based on an experience-sampling protocol in which self-report ratings will be triggered based on real-time analysis of the participant's current brain state. The protocol will be conducted while participants are undergoing MRI scanning.

Interventions

Experience sampling

Participants will repeatedly and intermittently report the content of their ongoing, self-generated experiences based on an experience-sampling protocol in which self-report ratings will be triggered based on real-time analysis of the participant's current brain state. The protocol will be conducted while participants are undergoing MRI scanning.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Age between 18-35

Exclusion Criteria

• History of psychiatric or neurological disorder
• contraindication for MRI

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 35 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Drexel University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Aaron Kucyi, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Drexel University

Locations

Drexel University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Tiara Bounyarith, BA

Role: CONTACT

tb3344@drexel.edu

2155537124

Facility Contacts

Tiara Bounyarith, BA

Role: primary

tb3344@drexel.edu

Other Identifiers

1R21MH129630-01A1

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

2208009393

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id