Representational Approach to Hippocampal Functions : a fMRI Study (SHIP)

December 15, 2025 updated by: University Hospital, Grenoble

Approche représentationnelle de l'Hippocampe Dans la Cognition : Étude en IRMf

Although traditional neuropsychological models associate medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions to memory, and the hippocampus to episodic memory, there is growing evidence supporting an alternative view. The representational view of the MTL proposes that such regions depends on the representations processed rather than the cognitive processes. The aim of this project is to characterise the role played by MTL areas, and particularly the hippocampus, in mnemonic and non-mnemonic cognition. Hypotheses stemming from the representational view will thus be tested, using functional MRI among young healthy participants.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Traditional neuropsychological models associate the medial temporal lobe (MTL) with episodic memory. Further, the hippocampus would be responsible for recollection, or the rich and contextualised retrieval of a memory; whereas the perirhinal cortex (PRC) would process familiarity, or the feeling that a stimulus has been encountered before, without remembering where or when it happened. However, there is growing evidence questioning this view, and supporting an alternative proposal. The representational view of the MTL proposes that such regions would not be organised according to cognitive processes, but rather according to the representations (or the mnemonic content, represented by a pattern of neuronal spikes. A 2018-fMRI study demonstrated that the engagement of the hippocampus in recollection depends on the presence of a spatial scene in the memory that is retrieved, and not on the reconstructive nature of the retrieval. However, this demonstration is incomplete, as the only process that was investigated is recollection. The current project aims to extend such results to memory processes such as familiarity, and even to non-mnemonic processes such as visual discrimination. A fMRI study will thus be conducted, where 30 healthy participants will first perform a visual-discrimination task on scenes and objects, before taking a recognition task, in which images will either be presented in full or in the form of circular cues only. Multivariate-Pattern Analyses (MVPA) will complete traditional fMRI analyses, in order to determine whether activity in the MTL can be categorised on the basis of representations through a machine-learning classifier.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
60

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • France
      • Grenoble, France, 38043
        • CHU Grenoble Alpes

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 35 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Affiliation to French Healthcare system
  • No contraindication to MRI examination
  • Age between 18 and 35 years-old
  • Visual acuity permitting normal perception of stimuli or corrected sight

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Existence of a pathology incompatible with the protocol : Heart, respiratory, haematological, caner, neurological disorder...
  • Brain-modulating medical treatment
  • Alcohol intake before examination
  • Uncorrected visual disorder
  • Cognitive deficit (criterion MMSE < 27)
  • People protected by articles L1121-5 to L1121-8 of the CSP (pregnant women, under-18 subjects, people under judiciary or administrative surveillance)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: One group of 30 healthy subjects
Perception and memory tasks inside a MRI-scanner for all participants
Device: MRI-scanner
Only one group of 30 participants is constituted. All participants will perform perception and memory tasks inside a MRI-scanner. Functional activity (BOLD signal) will be registered, as well as anatomical and behavioural data.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Hippocampal activity during behavioural tasks in the MRI scanner
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
Activity will be recorded through the MRI whereas participants will perform the tasks. Outcome criteria consist in significant activity observed in participants hippocampus, depending on the experimental conditions.
through study completion, an average of 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University Hospital, Grenoble

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
University Grenoble Alps
Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition
Université Savoie Mont Blanc

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Olivier Moreaud, University Hospital, Grenoble

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
September 3, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
March 2, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
March 2, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
September 4, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 21, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
September 24, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
December 22, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
December 15, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2020-A01592-37 (Other Identifier: ID RCB)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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