Cognitive Neurocomputational Task Reliability and Clinical Applications Consortium: Study 3 (CNTRACS)

November 5, 2026 updated by: Deanna Barch, Washington University School of Medicine

Cognitive Neurocomputational Task Reliability and Clinical Applications Consortium

In Study 3, all tasks and models from Aim 1 will be evaluated in a large community sample of online participants recruited through Prolific.

Aim 3 will establish 1) requirements for testing computational algorithms in population-based samples, 2) whether task length is optimal, and 3) whether computational parameters help predict psychopathology (hallucinations and delusions in particular) in the general population, and how these predictors may be impacted by demographic variables, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age and other social determinants of health.

Participant demographics will be matched to the U.S. Census 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) data release (updated as available). MPI MacDonald has successfully recruited large online samples for over a decade.

Specifically, researchers will recruit two samples of n=2,000 to preregister hypotheses and then n=3,000 to independently confirm those hypotheses. Multiple methods will affirm the highest quality human self-report and behavioral data for online samples.

Researchers use Prolific, which is known for high quality research participation, maintaining low levels of bots through strategies such as requiring a photo ID and a waiting period. Second, inclusion criteria will require an approval rating of 90-100% from previous researchers. Participants will complete three sessions, each limited to ~60 min to avoid burnout.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Researchers will recruit two samples of 2,000 to preregister hypotheses and then 3,000 to independently confirm those hypotheses.

Multiple methods will affirm the highest quality human self-report and behavioral data for online samples. First, researchers will use Prolific, which is known for high quality research participation, maintaining low levels of bots through strategies such as requiring a photo ID and a waiting period. Participants will complete 3 sessions, each limited to ~60 min to avoid burnout. Researchers anticipate complete data from 74% of participants, based on data completion rates in the previous online study.

General Cognitive Ability. Researchers will include standard general cognitive measures to assess the specificity of effects beyond general cognitive impairment. Specifically, researchers will include validated online measures from TestMyBrain (https://www.testmybrain.org/using-tmb/research.html; Digit Symbol Coding, Vocabulary, and Matrix Reasoning), as in our prior work in both clinical and healthy populations.

Self-Report Questionnaires: Researchers will use the Beliefs about Voices Scale which assesses attributions about the origin and power of voices, and the Yale Control Over Perceptual Experiences (COPE) scale, which evaluates the extent to which people feel they can exert control over their voices. Researchers will also use the Peters Delusion Inventory to assess the extent of delusional thinking, supplemented by the Green Paranoia Scale, which provides additional coverage of persecutory beliefs. To assess specificity, researchers will use the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depression, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7)78 to assess anxiety, and the Motivation and Pleasure Scale-Self-Report (MAP-SR) to assess anhedonia and motivation with the addition of additional measures of psychosis (Aberrant Salience Inventory, Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire - Brief), alcohol use (AUDIT), cannabis use (Daily Sessions, Frequency, Age of Onset, and Quantity of Cannabis Use Inventory), and tobacco and other substance use (World Health Organization (WHO) Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test), as researchers will not have a Stuctured Clinical Interview (SCID) for on-line participants.

Researchers will also measure daily functioning using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0. Validity questions and procedures will be included. These measures will take 30 mins to complete, as researchers found in prior studies. Researchers will conduct a principal components analysis (PCA) on measures of the same construct (e.g., delusions) and perform primary analyses using the first principal component, followed by secondary analyses of specific measures False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

10000

Phase

  • 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 Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Minnesota
      • Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55455
        • Recruiting
        • University of Minnesota
        • Contact:
          • Angus MacDonald III, PhD
          • Phone Number: 612-624-3813
          • Email: angus@umn.edu
        • Contact:
    • Missouri
      • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63130
        • Recruiting
        • Washington University
        • 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 59 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Residents of the U.S.
  • between 18-59 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Resides outside of U.S.
  • under 18 or over 59 years of age

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)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sine Wave Speech Task Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

Percentage of trials coded as speech or not vs Dprime
1 hour
Minnesota Trust Game Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

Percent of trusting choices depending on decision-agent and temptation vs. spite-guilt beliefs estimate
1 hour
Dynamic Trust Game Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

Trust indexed by mean investment versus learning rates
1 hour
Motion Perception Task Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

With 15 degrees of initial or changed direction vs. the probability of failing to update
1 hour
Volatility Task Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

Percent correct bag captures during periods of stability vs. instability - patients worse in both, but particularly impaired ininstability vs. Environmental volatility belief parameter
1 hour
Choice Probabilistic Reversal Performance Task
Time Frame: 1 hour

Win-switch rate (higher in patients, particularly paranoid patients) vs. (prior on volatility belief updating in response tovolatility
1 hour
Kamin Blocking Task Performance
Time Frame: 1 hour

Number of times participant predict allergy following blocked cue vs. prediction errors and learning rates
1 hour

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
University of Chicago
University of Minnesota
University of California, Irvine
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Deanna Barch, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine

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 (Estimated)

December 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2031

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2031

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 21, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 21, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

October 28, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 9, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 5, 2026

Last Verified

October 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 201904012: Study 3
  • 2R01MH084840 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Our plan is to share de-identified participant data through the National Data Archive (NDA) as required bythe National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

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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