NEUROR: Exploring the Neural Basis of Reasoning (NEUROR)

April 20, 2021 updated by: Centre Hospitalier St Anne

Exploring the Neural Basis of Reasoning

Decades of research have long established that people's reasoning can be biased by their intuitions and deviate from logical norms. Popular dual process models that characterize thinking as an interaction between intuitive and deliberate thought processes have presented an appealing explanation for this observation. Within this account logical reasoning is traditionally considered as a prototypical example of a task that requires effortful deliberate thinking. In recent years, however, a number of findings obtained with new behavioral paradigms have questioned the traditional dual process characterization. A key observation is that people can process logical principles in classic reasoning tasks intuitively without deliberation.

The fast or intuitive logic findings have far stretching theoretical implications for dual process theories and our view of human rationality. However, the nature of this newly discovered fast logical reasoning is not clear. One limitation is that its neural basis has not been explored. The primary goal of this project is to address this shortcoming in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. In the study adult participants will solve classic reasoning problems (i.e., variants of the bat-and-ball problem) in the scanner. Half of the trials will be traditional "Slow" trials in which participants get ample time to deliberate (i.e., 20 s). The other half of the trials will be "Fast" trials in which people do not get sufficient time to deliberate (i.e., 4 s deadline) and need to rely on intuitive processing.

All participants in the fMRI study will be healthy adults aged between 18-45. In addition to contrasting correct responders' brain activation during fast and slow trials, we will also contrast the fast and slow activations for correct and incorrect responses. This will allows us to identify brain regions associated with both correct and incorrect fast and slow logical responses and reach our study objective.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Anticipated)

60

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 45 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Healthy adults

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • right-handed
  • signed informed consent form
  • medical, neurological, neuroradiological healthy
  • social security number
  • use of contraception for female subjects

Exclusion Criteria:

  • standard contra-indication for MRI examination (pacemaker, metallic implants/dental braces, claustrophobia, pregnancy)
  • chronic drug or alcohol user
  • cognitive disorders linked to cardiovascular accidents
  • chronic neurological or psychiatric disorder
  • history of major illness (diabetes, metabolic, cancer, immunological)
  • use of medicines that can potentially interfere with cerebral imaging (psychotropic drugs, hypnotics, anxiolytics, neuroleptics, anti-parkinson drugs, benzodiazepines, steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antiepileptics, anti-histamines, central analgesics and muscle relaxants)
  • dyschromatopsia
  • pregnant female
  • non-MRI compatible tattoo

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

  • Observational Models: Other
  • Time Perspectives: Other

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
fMRI results
Time Frame: 2 years
Contrast of brain activations during correct and incorrect intuitive and deliberate reasoning
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Catherine OPPENHEIM, Dr, Groupe Hospitalier Universitaire Paris - Psychiatrie & Neurosciences (GHU Paris)

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 (Anticipated)

May 3, 2021

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

May 3, 2023

Study Completion (Anticipated)

May 3, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 13, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 13, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

April 19, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 22, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 20, 2021

Last Verified

April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2019-A02022-55

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

IPD Plan Description

We plan to share the anonymized study data (behavioral scores and imaging data) on the open-science framework. This will allow other researchers to verify or statistical analyses.

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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