The purpose of this study is to help researchers learn which areas of the brain are necessary to perform certain tasks, especially processing of social and emotional information, including attitudes. Study participants will undergo an MRI scan. Some MRI studies suggest that there are brain differences in people with nervous system illness when compared to those without nervous system illness.

Most MRI scans in this study will require 45-90 minutes of the participants' time. During the scan, participants will be asked to perform tasks that range from passively viewing words on a screen to making judgments regarding the items being viewed and pushing buttons in response. During the MRI, participants also may be asked to complete written tests, sit in front of a computer screen, and make decisions about items they are shown.

Study participants must be healthy, right-handed, native English speakers, and 21-65 years of age. The following people may not participate in this study: those with any history of nervous system disease, those with metal in their bodies, and women who are pregnant. Participants will be compensated for their time.

Condition
Healthy

Further Study Details: 

Expected Total Enrollment:  105

The purpose of the protocol is to localize the neural regions and systems mediating the forms of knowledge representations hypothesized by the principal investigator to be stored in the human prefrontal cortex. Utilizing a variety of experimental neuropsychological tasks during functional MRI, we will investigate hypotheses regarding the role of the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in social cognition and emotional processing. We will ascertain the relationship between so-called cold regions within the prefrontal cortex. We will also attempt to determine the relationship between non-frontal neural structures involved in emotional expressions, such as amygdala, and those frontal neural structures involved in executive functions that may modulate emotion. The data that we collect in this protocol will be of value in (1) identifying a set of neural regions and distributed networks mediating the forms of knowledge representation stored in the prefrontal cortex and (2) developing functional MRI screening measures for subjects at-risk for developing a neurological disorder. We will also use the data obtained in these studies with healthy adult volunteers to constrain theories of frontal lobe function based on the study of patients with focal or diffuse frontal lobe lesions and to provide convergent evidence for the role of specific frontal cortex sectors in specific cognitive functions.

Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Criteria

INCLUSION CRITERIA:
Adults aged 21-65 years.
Every effort will be made to balance for gender and race;
The healthy normal controls recruited into these studies will be determined by Section staff phone and in-person interviews to be free of psychiatric, neurological, or other medical disorders that would constrain interpretation of their performance during functional neuroimaging studies.
All subjects will be native English-speakers and right-handed, as measured by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, due to the association between language lateralization and handedness.
In addition, all subjects in Study 3 (that addresses political stereotypes) will be American and will be screened for political affiliation using several measures prior to participation in the study.
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
No volunteer will be excluded on the basis of race or gender.
Individuals with a neurological or psychiatric history or medical condition that would compromise our interpretation of the fMRI results would be excluded.
Exclusion criteria are: medical contraindications to MRI procedures (e.g. pacemakers, cochlear devices, surgical clips); technical contraindications to MRI procedures (e.g. no braces); CNS active medications; and claustrophobia.
Pregnant women will also be excluded from participation due to the unknown effects of the high magnetic field on a developing fetus; to ensure compliance with this criterion, all women will undergo a pregnancy test within 24 hours prior to the scan. The results of the pregnancy test must be negative in order for the women to be scanned.

Maryland
      National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), 9000 Rockville Pike,  Bethesda,  Maryland,  20892,  United States; Recruiting

Study ID Numbers:  030196; 03-N-0196
Record last reviewed:  March 22, 2004
Last Updated:  November 23, 2004
Record first received:  May 23, 2003
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:  NCT00061334
Health Authority: United States: Federal Government
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on 2005-04-08