NCT07454785

Neuronal Mechanisms of Learning and Utilizing Abstract Representations

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 114 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine how memories of past experiences are used to guide behavior in novel situations through the cognitive process of abstraction. This project examines how abstract representations are learned, whether and how they support generalization to novel situations, and whether and how they support analogical reasoning.

Detailed description

Despite the importance of abstraction for human cognition, little is known about the underlying mechanisms and their disruption by disease or injury. The goal of this research is to develop a circuit-level understanding of abstraction to enable the development of new treatments for the devastating effects of cognitive disorders in which abstraction fails. As part of this study, investigators will conduct experiments that utilize the rare opportunity to record in-vivo from human single neurons simultaneously in multiple brain areas in patients undergoing treatment for drug resistant epilepsy. Researchers will investigate three overarching hypotheses on the neural substrate of abstraction. Aim 1: to determine the dynamics of learning abstract representations. Aim 2: to decipher how abstract representations facilitate generalization. Aim 3: to decipher how abstract representations facilitate analogical reasoning. The expected outcomes of this work are a characterization of how abstract neural representations are formed, how they enable generalization to novel stimuli and tasks, and how they enable analogical reasoning. Participants in this study are patients undergoing invasive monitoring for suspected focal epilepsy with depth electrodes. Subjects will conduct a variety of cognitive tests on a computer placed in front of them during their hospital stay. Participating hospitals in this study are Cedars-Sinai, UC Davis, and Barrow Neurological Institute.

Conditions

• Epilepsy Intractable

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Cedrus RB-844 response pad; Adtech Behnke-Fried micro-electrodes; Neurolynx electrophysiology system; Blackrock Cerestim stimulator	Devices listed are components of a single intervention that includes: Record patient responses (Cedrus RB-844), record neuronal activity (Neurolynx) from electrodes (Adtech Behnke-Fried), apply intermittent electrical stimulation (Blackrock Cerestim)

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-02-01
• Primary completion: 2028-08-31
• Completion: 2028-08-31
• First posted: 2026-03-06
• Last updated: 2026-03-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States