Ignite Creation Date:
2024-05-06 @ 3:17 PM
Last Modification Date:
2024-10-26 @ 1:46 PM
Study NCT ID:
NCT04582994
Status:
COMPLETED
Last Update Posted:
2023-09-29
First Post:
2020-10-04
Brief Title:
The Role of Beta Oscillation in Mental Time Travel
Sponsor:
Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA
Organization:
Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA
Study Overview
Official Title:
The Role of Beta Oscillation in Mental Time Travel a tACS Study in Healthy Subjects
Status:
COMPLETED
Status Verified Date:
2021-04
Last Known Status:
None
Delayed Posting:
No
If Stopped, Why?:
Not Stopped
Has Expanded Access:
False
If Expanded Access, NCT#:
N/A
Has Expanded Access, NCT# Status:
N/A
Acronym:
None
Brief Summary:
The project aims to study the neural basis of Mental Time Travel MTT ie the ability to travel back and forth in time It has been proposed that the self-projection in time is similar to the self-projection in space emphasizing the role of spatial navigation in MTT Indeed the posterior parietal cortex a key region for visual imagery in space-related tasks and the temporo-parietal junction a key region for mental projection are both recruited by self-projection in time and space However the specific neural computation of the two processes remains unclear One way to address this is by investigating the brain oscillations that may modulate MTT One plausible candidate for MTT processing are beta oscillations because of their role in the production and perception of short temporal intervals as opposed to alpha oscillations which correlate with illusory changes in self location in space Thus the present project investigates the hypothesis that MTT may rely on posterior parietal cortexs beta oscillations to self-project in time Moreover cause previous studies showed a different performance in time processing between young and elderly health population we want to investigate also if there is a difference between these two populations in the capacity to travel mentally in time
Detailed Description:
A characteristic of human conscious experience is the ability to mentally project oneself to a new time location either in the past or in the future ie the so-called Mental Time Travel MTT The aim of the present project is to study the neural basis of MTT
It has been proposed that the self-projection in time is similar to the self-projection in space emphasizing the role of spatial navigation in MTT Indeed the posterior parietal cortex a key region for visual imagery in space-related tasks and the temporo-parietal junction a key region for mental projection are both recruited by self-projection in time and space However the specific neural computation of the two processes remains unclear One way to address this is by investigating the brain oscillations that may modulate MTT One plausible candidate for MTT processing are beta oscillations because of their role in the production and perception of short temporal intervals as opposed to alpha oscillations which correlate with illusory changes in self location in space Thus we hypothesize that the MTT may rely on posterior parietal cortexs beta oscillations to self-project in time Moreover because previous studies showed a different performance in time processing between young and elderly health population we want to investigate also if there is a differences between these two populations in the MTT
To assess the MTT we developed a new task in which participants see stimulus faces of different ages one at a time Each face is presented with a short phrase describing a particular life event commonly happening in middle age Participants perform a 2-alternative forced choice in the Past Projection they indicate if it is likely or unlikely that the stimulus person has lived the life event 10 years ago in the Future projection that the stimulus person will live the event 10 years in the future We use transcranial alternating current stimulation tACS to test within subjects the role of target Beta and control oscillations Alpha in addition to a control non-stimulation condition Sham To rule out that tACS may simply affect age perception participants are also asked to report the age of each stimulus face Age Estimation task Moreover to investigate if there is any correlation between the MTT and the perception of short temporal interval participants perform a time reproduction task before the brain stimulation and the MTT task In the Time Reproduction task a blue square is presented with a variable duration encoding phase Immediately after the encoding phase a red square of the same size and position is presented Subjects press a response button when they considered that the same of the previously studied time interval has elapsed
A pilot study from 11 participants shows that beta-tACS corresponds to a shift in the psychometric curve towards a younger age in the Past condition and towards an older age in the Future condition Thus participants indicated a younger face as more likely to have lived an event 10 years ago and an older face as more likely to live an event 10 years in the future This suggests that beta-tACS leads to an under-estimation of time relative to sham and alpha-tACS Crucially there were no significant differences in estimating the veridical ages of the stimulus faces Thus beta oscillation may modulate self-projection in time since these data are consistent with an under-estimation of time
If confirmed results will allow us to specify that self-projection in time relies on the posterior parietal regions and beta oscillations Moreover if supported by our future experiments involving space processing this result may also shed a new light on the distinction between self-projection in space which is known to rely on alpha and self-projection in time that relies on beta Overall these data may point to the fact that beta oscillations are critical for processing long durations in addition to their well-known role in supporting short durations This may be because beta oscillation may serve as a memory standard to which different durations are compared
It has been proposed that the self-projection in time is similar to the self-projection in space emphasizing the role of spatial navigation in MTT Indeed the posterior parietal cortex a key region for visual imagery in space-related tasks and the temporo-parietal junction a key region for mental projection are both recruited by self-projection in time and space However the specific neural computation of the two processes remains unclear One way to address this is by investigating the brain oscillations that may modulate MTT One plausible candidate for MTT processing are beta oscillations because of their role in the production and perception of short temporal intervals as opposed to alpha oscillations which correlate with illusory changes in self location in space Thus we hypothesize that the MTT may rely on posterior parietal cortexs beta oscillations to self-project in time Moreover because previous studies showed a different performance in time processing between young and elderly health population we want to investigate also if there is a differences between these two populations in the MTT
To assess the MTT we developed a new task in which participants see stimulus faces of different ages one at a time Each face is presented with a short phrase describing a particular life event commonly happening in middle age Participants perform a 2-alternative forced choice in the Past Projection they indicate if it is likely or unlikely that the stimulus person has lived the life event 10 years ago in the Future projection that the stimulus person will live the event 10 years in the future We use transcranial alternating current stimulation tACS to test within subjects the role of target Beta and control oscillations Alpha in addition to a control non-stimulation condition Sham To rule out that tACS may simply affect age perception participants are also asked to report the age of each stimulus face Age Estimation task Moreover to investigate if there is any correlation between the MTT and the perception of short temporal interval participants perform a time reproduction task before the brain stimulation and the MTT task In the Time Reproduction task a blue square is presented with a variable duration encoding phase Immediately after the encoding phase a red square of the same size and position is presented Subjects press a response button when they considered that the same of the previously studied time interval has elapsed
A pilot study from 11 participants shows that beta-tACS corresponds to a shift in the psychometric curve towards a younger age in the Past condition and towards an older age in the Future condition Thus participants indicated a younger face as more likely to have lived an event 10 years ago and an older face as more likely to live an event 10 years in the future This suggests that beta-tACS leads to an under-estimation of time relative to sham and alpha-tACS Crucially there were no significant differences in estimating the veridical ages of the stimulus faces Thus beta oscillation may modulate self-projection in time since these data are consistent with an under-estimation of time
If confirmed results will allow us to specify that self-projection in time relies on the posterior parietal regions and beta oscillations Moreover if supported by our future experiments involving space processing this result may also shed a new light on the distinction between self-projection in space which is known to rely on alpha and self-projection in time that relies on beta Overall these data may point to the fact that beta oscillations are critical for processing long durations in addition to their well-known role in supporting short durations This may be because beta oscillation may serve as a memory standard to which different durations are compared
Study Oversight
Has Oversight DMC:
None
Is a FDA Regulated Drug?:
False
Is a FDA Regulated Device?:
False
Is an Unapproved Device?:
None
Is a PPSD?:
None
Is a US Export?:
None
Is an FDA AA801 Violation?:
None