NCT lookup
Pull any trial record directly from ClinicalTrials.gov.
Sponsor: Wuerzburg University Hospital
Conditions: Young Healthy Adults
Interventions: Hippocampal intermittent-theta burst stimulation, Striatal intermittent-theta burst stimulation, High-frequency control stimulation with striatal electrode set-up, High-frequency control stimulation with hippocampal electrode set-up
Countries: Germany
This study aims to investigate which of two brain regions is important for which decision-making strategy. The investigators suppose that one brain region - the \*striatum\* - is important for repeatedly choosing objects that have previously been paired with rewards (strategy 1). They suppose that a different region - the \*hippocampus\* - is important for extending such reasoning to RELATED objects (strategy 2). The investigators will repeatedly ask young and healthy subjects to choose between two objects. The two objects are repeatedly drawn from a pool of seven. Relations between the seven objects have been learned on the first day of the experiment. The investigators will record subjects' choices and will use an automated way to assess the extent to which any given subject uses either decision-making strategy. * On one day, subjects will perform the task while their right hippocampus is being stimulated with non-invasive electrical stimulation ("condition A"). * On another day, subjects will perform the same task but with their striatum being stimulated ("condition B"). * On yet another day, a control stimulation ("condition C") will be applied that looks and feels like the real stimulation but does not influence brain activity. Which stimulation (A, B, C) happens on which day is assigned by computer code and differs between subjects. Subjects do not know, and investigators mostly do not know, whether real or control stimulation is applied on each day. The investigators will check whether subjects use strategy 1 more when their striatum is being stimulated and strategy 2 more when their hippocampus is being stimulated, as compared to when the control stimulation is applied.
Sex: ALL
Age: 18 Years to 40 Years
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Inclusion Criteria: * No diagnosis of any neurological or psychiatric disease Exclusion Criteria: * Severe neuropsychiatric or unstable systemic disease * Severe sensory or cognitive impairment or musculoskeletal dysfunction that would prevent subjects from understanding the task instructions or executing the tasks * Implanted medical devices * Diagnosis of epilepsy or history of one or more epileptic seizure(s) * Pieces of metal in/around the head * Regular consumption of narcotics (also excluded: cannabis within past month, alcohol abuse or dependence) * Pregnancy and breast feeding * Incapability of giving informed consent * Left-handedness Subjects included in the study will be excluded from analyses if their datasets are incomplete. To ensure full counterbalancing, excluded subjects will be replaced by new ones.
- Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany