Clinical trial NCT06460207: Neurofeedback Removal of Emotional Information From Mind
Official title: A 4-day Study of Neurofeedback Training of Cognitive Control in Healthy Adults
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Neurofeedback
Cognitive Training
Memory, Short-Term
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Keywords: Suppression
Maintenance
Cognitive Control
Working Memory
Lead sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Colorado, Boulder
First posted: 2024-06-14
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 40
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants will be randomly assigned to either the positive or negative valence condition. They will encounter stimuli from their assigned valence only during the fMRI task, but from both valences during the behavioral tests, so that the investigators can evaluate whether any learning generalizes across emotional valence.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: This project will examine whether individuals can be trained, using real-time feedback about brain function during neuroimaging, to effectively remove thoughts from mind by providing them with a sense of what it feels like to successfully remove a thought.

Detailed description: On the first day, an anatomical MRI scan will be followed by a 12-min resting state scan, a 30-min item localizer task in which participants view a set of 80 scene stimuli 3 times each, and a 10-min memory test outside the scanner. The brain data from the localizer will be used to identify baseline measures of item-specific brain activity patterns. On 3 subsequent days (within the next 2 weeks), participants will receive neurofeedback training. In each 1-hr session, an anatomical scan will be followed by 8 runs (5 min each) of 20 trials, half with each operation, randomly ordered, and a 10-min behavioral memory test. In the scanner, participants will perform a working memory task in which they encode a scene image and then are instructed to either maintain that image in mind for a few seconds or to suppress that image from mind. At the end of each trial, neurofeedback will be provided to the participant visually to denote their "level of engagement" in the instructed operation on that trial. The neurofeedback is derived from the MRI classifier fit for the instructed operation (maintain or suppress) from a working memory operation classifier that is pre-trained on prior data. Participants (N=40) will be randomly assigned to either the positive or negative valence condition. They will encounter stimuli from their assigned valence only during the neuroimaging task, but from both valences during the behavioral tests, so that the investigators can evaluate whether any learning generalizes across emotional valence.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Right-handed
* Speak English fluently
* Minimum 8th grade education
* Good hearing
* Good vision or minimal correction with contacts or eyeglasses

Exclusion Criteria:

* History of significant illnesses (including cardiovascular disease, cancer, immunodeficiency disorders (including HIV infection)
* Diabetes
* Unstable endocrine disorders
* Neurological disorders
* Neuromuscular disorders
* Blood dyscrasias
* History of major psychiatric disorders (including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and dementia)
* Substance dependence
* History of head trauma with loss of consciousness
* Cerebrovascular accident
* Seizures
* Neurosurgical intervention
* Metal implants in the body (including pacemakers, neurostimulators, or other metal objects)
* Metal piercings that cannot be removed for the scan
* Women who are pregnant or who think they may be pregnant

Primary outcomes:
measure: Neurofeedback learning
timeFrame: Within 2 weeks after the first day of the experiment, 3 neurofeedback training sessions lasting about 1 hour will occur at least 24 hours apart. The outcome measure will be computed at the end of all 3 sessions.
measure: Neural consequences of control
timeFrame: Within 2 weeks after the first day of the experiment, 3 neurofeedback training sessions lasting about 1 hour will occur at least 24 hours apart. The outcome measure will be computed across all trials in each run, and for each of the 3 sessions.
measure: Behavioral consequences of control
timeFrame: This outcome measure will be collected at the end of the first day of the experiment and at the end of each of the 3 subsequent neurofeedback sessions occurring at least 24 hours apart within the next 2 weeks.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Training transfer across valence
timeFrame: Within 2 weeks after the first day of the experiment, 3 neurofeedback training sessions lasting about 1 hour will occur at least 24 hours apart. This outcome measure will be collected at the end of each of the 3 sessions.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
name: Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Kim H, Smolker HR, Smith LL, Banich MT, Lewis-Peacock JA. Changes to information in working memory depend on distinct removal operations. Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 7;11(1):6239. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20085-4.
citation: Sitaram R, Ros T, Stoeckel L, Haller S, Scharnowski F, Lewis-Peacock J, Weiskopf N, Blefari ML, Rana M, Oblak E, Birbaumer N, Sulzer J. Closed-loop brain training: the science of neurofeedback. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2017 Feb;18(2):86-100. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2016.164. Epub 2016 Dec 22.
citation: Banich MT, Mackiewicz Seghete KL, Depue BE, Burgess GC. Multiple modes of clearing one's mind of current thoughts: overlapping and distinct neural systems. Neuropsychologia. 2015 Mar;69:105-17. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.01.039. Epub 2015 Jan 28.
citation: Lewis-Peacock JA, Kessler Y, Oberauer K. The removal of information from working memory. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 Jul;1424(1):33-44. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13714. Epub 2018 May 9.
citation: Lewis-Peacock JA, Drysdale AT, Oberauer K, Postle BR. Neural evidence for a distinction between short-term memory and the focus of attention. J Cogn Neurosci. 2012 Jan;24(1):61-79. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00140. Epub 2011 Sep 29.
citation: Wang TH, Placek K, Lewis-Peacock JA. More Is Less: Increased Processing of Unwanted Memories Facilitates Forgetting. J Neurosci. 2019 May 1;39(18):3551-3560. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2033-18.2019. Epub 2019 Mar 11.