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Identifying the Neural Correlates of Mental Simulation in Multi-Step Planning
Who can join
Ages 18 to 64 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome
Full eligibility criteria
Inclusion Criteria: * N/A Exclusion Criteria: * History of neurological or psychiatric illness * Vulnerable populations
About the study
Planning is the ability to think ahead by considering possible future actions and their consequences. This research study aims to understand how the brain supports multi-step planning by testing whether people simulate promising future move sequences while deciding what to do next. Healthy adult volunteers will learn and play a strategy game called "Four-in-a-Row" (similar to Connect Four). Participants will complete two sessions on successive days: an online behavioral training/playing session and an in-person brain-recording session at New York University. During the brain-recording session, participants will view mid-game board positions and choose the best move while the study team records brain activity (using magnetoencephalography \[MEG\] or functional MRI \[fMRI\]) and eye movements. Data from the game and eye tracking will also be used to fit computational models of planning that help interpret the neural measurements.
What is being tested
- Four-in-a-Row Task (behavioral)
Sponsor: New York University · Participants: 50 · Started: Jul 10, 2025
Contact the study team
Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT07293637
Locations in the U.S.
| New York | New York University, New York |
From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.