Identifying the Neural Correlates of Mental Simulation in Multi-Step Planning

Planning is the ability to think ahead by considering possible future actions and their consequences. This research study aims to understand how the brain supports multi-step planning by testing whether people simulate promising future move sequences while deciding what to do next. Healthy adult volunteers will learn and play a strategy game called "Four-in-a-Row" (similar to Connect Four). Participants will complete two sessions on successive days: an online behavioral training/playing session and an in-person brain-recording session at New York University. During the brain-recording session, participants will view mid-game board positions and choose the best move while the study team records brain activity (using magnetoencephalography [MEG] or functional MRI [fMRI]) and eye movements. Data from the game and eye tracking will also be used to fit computational models of planning that help interpret the neural measurements.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Cognition; Decision Making; Problem Solving; Mental Simulation; Planning
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Four-in-a-Row Task

Detailed Description

This is a human neuroimaging study consisting of two related experiments designed to characterize the neural correlates of mental simulation during multi-step planning in the "Four-in-a-Row" game. Planning is modeled as a feature-based heuristic evaluation combined with look-ahead (tree search) that evaluates candidate actions by simulating future states and outcomes.

Participants complete two sessions on successive days. Session 1 is a ~60-minute online behavioral session in which participants learn the rules of Four-in-a-Row (including a comprehension/quiz check) and play multiple games against computer opponents spanning difficulty levels. Behavioral data from Session 1 are used to fit a computational model of planning for each participant.

Session 2 is an in-person neuroimaging session with simultaneous eye tracking. In the MEG experiment, participants complete a feature localizer followed by a primary planning task in which they evaluate mid-game board positions with a fixed decision window (e.g., 15 seconds) to encourage planning. B2 In the fMRI experiment, participants complete a planning task while BOLD activity and eye movements are recorded, using a trial structure designed to dissociate model-derived quantities such as myopic value and tree-search value.

The main analyses will test where (fMRI) and when (MEG) the brain represents simulated future states, their values, and the evolving decision process, guided by participant-specific computational-model predictions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10012
      • Recruiting
      • New York University
      • Principal Investigator: Marcelo G Mattar, PhD
      • Contact: Facility contact, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 929-399-9886‬; Email: mattar.lab.nyu@gmail.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• N/A

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of neurological or psychiatric illness
• Vulnerable populations

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: MEG cohort; Single-group study in healthy adults. Participants complete a behavioral training session and then an in-person session performing the Four-in-a-Row planning task during MEG (with an additional MEG localizer task, as applicable).

Behavioral: Four-in-a-Row Task; Deterministic, adversarial 'Four-in-a-Row' decision-making task that requires thinking multiple steps ahead. Participants complete a training/gameplay session and a laboratory session in which they choose moves from mid-game positions while behavioral responses (and eye movements, if applicable) are recorded. After the neuroimaging session, participants may play a full match outside the scanner for an additional monetary reward.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percent of moves correctly predicted by the behavioral model	Participant choices in the Four-in-a-Row task are used to fit a computational behavioral model. After fitting, the model predicts an action for each state; we quantify the percent of participant moves matched by the model's predicted move.	1 hour
MEG activity	Task-evoked MEG activity during different stages of the task, specifically deliberation about upcoming decisions.	1 hour

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: New York University
• Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 10, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 17, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 17, 2025
• First Posted (Estimated): December 19, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 8, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 7, 2026
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: fMRI; MEG; Planning; Eye tracking; Computational modeling; Four-in-a-Row; Tree search
• Other Study ID Numbers: 24-1331; 1R01MH134979-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified participant-level behavioral task data (choices/RT), eye-tracking measures, and analysis code. Neuroimaging data will be shared as de-identified derivatives (and/or raw data if allowed by consent and de-identification procedures). Supporting metadata/documentation (e.g., scanning protocols) and analytic code used for published analyses will also be shared.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: IPD and supporting information will be made available starting 12 months after the NIH award begins, with updates deposited every 6 months thereafter, and will remain available indefinitely.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: De-identified IPD will be available through the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) and via OSF/OpenNeuro for relevant datasets, with analytic code shared via GitHub. We will not impose any investigator-specific limitations on access, distribution, or reuse beyond standard repository requirements (e.g., account registration and agreement to repository terms). All shared data will be de-identified.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No