NCT04175119

Tracking Information Flow in the Brain

Tracking Information Flow in the Brain: A Unified and General Framework for Dynamic Communication in Brain Networks

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 157 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hospices Civils de Lyon · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years – 36 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The brain is composed of a set of areas specialized in specific computations whose outputs need to be transferred to other specialized areas for cognition to emerge. To account for context-dependent behaviors, the information must be flexibly routed through the fixed anatomy of the brain. The aim of this project is to test a general framework for this flexible communication between brain areas based on nested oscillations. The general idea is that internally-driven slow oscillations (\<20Hertz) either set-up or prevent the communication between brain areas. Stimulus-driven gamma oscillations (\>30Hertz), nested in the slow oscillations, can then be directed to task-relevant areas of the network. This multimodal, multi-scale approach uses magnetoencephalography using a 3-Dimensional (3D) printed individual head-cast system and transcranial stimulation in experiments manipulating visual processing, attention and memory to test core predictions of this framework. The theoretical approach and the methodological development used in this basic science study will provide the basis for future fundamental and clinical research.

Conditions

• Healthy Volunteer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Visual attention/perception tasks in healthy participants	The participants complete visual attention and perception tasks while fMRI, EEG, and MEG record brain signals. The tasks acquire responses with a visual saccade or button presses which are coupled to brain responses. These responses are then analyzed to identify patterns of communication between brain areas (within-subject). The flickering stimuli (experiment 1) may alter oscillations in the brain, while participants complete visual attention and perception tasks, leading to a secondary outcome measure distinct from the button presses. The procedure concerning the flickers will be the same for participants. The tACS (experiment 2) delivers input in addition to gathering output while participants complete visual attention and perception tasks. A sinusoidal current at a chosen frequency interacts with the brain's natural oscillations and alters responses. Participants will have sham sessions of tACS as well (there is no group division), The sham will be compared with the stimulation

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-11-25
• Primary completion: 2025-02-27
• Completion: 2025-02-27
• First posted: 2019-11-22
• Last updated: 2025-11-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France