Healthy VolunteerNCT00001360
Studies of Blood Flow to the Brain During Thought
An observational study of Healthy Volunteer, run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The purpose of this study is to use brain imaging technology to measure changes in blood flow to areas in the brain as individuals perform intellectual tasks. This study will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine blood flow to areas of the brain as participants engage in tasks associated with… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 65 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Healthy Volunteer
- How many people
- 4,100 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 17 Sep 1993to not given
- Phase
- Observational
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 65 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Study population: Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65, who are in good general health will be recruited from the local community and studied under this minimal risk protocol.
Who may be able to join
- Healthy adults, with at least a high school education, aged 18 to 65 years, will be recruited to participate in the study.
- Able to read and write in English to guarantee understanding of all written and spoken instructions, which are in English.
Who cannot join
- Subjects will be excluded if they:
- have evidence of, or a history of:
- major medical, neurological or psychiatric illness
- serious head injury
- learning disability-drug or alcohol abuse or dependence in the past 3 months, except nicotine
- -are taking prescription drugs or supplements that may affect brain function-
Show all 11Show fewer
- -have serious vision or hearing problems
- In addition to the above, additional exclusion criteria apply for all MRI studies:
- Female subjects who are pregnant or have a positive pregnancy test 24 hours prior to an experiment will be excluded from neuroimaging studies.
- All subjects will be questioned prior to MRI scanning for possible occupational exposure to metal slivers or shavings, which may have become accidentally lodged in the tissues of the head or neck. Subjects with surgical clips or shrapnel in or near the brain or blood vessels, subjects with cochlear implants, subjects with any metallic body in the eye or CNS, and subjects with any form of implant wire or metal device which may concentrate radiofrequency fields will be excluded from MRI scanning experiments because of possible risks during MRI scanning. Those whose history is suggestive of such a problem will also be excluded from the MRI portion of the experiments. They may still participate in the behavioral and MEG experiments.
- Subjects unable to lie flat on their back for up to 3 hours may not be eligible to participate in MRI scans.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
Bethesda, Maryland, 20892
NIH Clinical Center Office of Patient Recruitment (OPR), 800-411-1222 ext. TTY dial 711, ccopr@nih.gov
About this study
Official title: Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Studies of Object Perception, Identification, Localization, and Memory
The purpose of this study is to use brain imaging technology to measure changes in blood flow to areas in the brain as individuals perform intellectual tasks.
This study will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine blood flow to areas of the brain as participants engage in tasks associated with visual perception, visual recognition, and memory.
Read the detailed description
Objective:
Our goal is to study the functional organization of the intact human brain by combining cognitive tasks and neuroimaging. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) will be used to measure brain activity in healthy human subjects engaged in performing cognitive tasks. These tasks will address specific questions concerning the neural systems that mediate perception, attention, memory, decision-making, emotion, plasticity and social interactions. fMRI and MEG, respectively, will be employed to investigate the spatial and temporal aspects of these neural systems.
Study Population:
Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65, who are in good general health will be recruited from the local community and studied under this minimal risk protocol.
Design:
Subjects will perform cognitive tasks in behavioral and/or neuroimaging sessions (fMRI or MEG).
Outcome Measures:
Behavior as performance on cognitive tasks, and brain activity (fMRI and MEG) will be combined to yield information about the neural correlates and processes underlying different aspects of human cognition including visual perception, memory, learning, emotion, social cognition, decision-making and attention.
- Conditions
- Healthy Volunteer
- Keywords
- Cognition, Vision, Cortex, Visual Processing, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Natural History
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65 who are in good general health. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging.
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging.
Measured: ongoing
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted4 Nov 1999 (estimated)
- Study start17 Sep 1993
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (49)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Healthy VolunteerStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)The sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Observational
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Cross-sectional
- Enrolment
- 4,100 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Sponsor type
- US National Institutes of Health
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Christopher I Baker, Ph.D., Principal investigator, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT00001360
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 930170
- Other IDs
- 93-M-0170
- Status last verified
- 18 Sep 2026
- First submitted
- 3 Nov 1999
- Last updated
- 5 Nov 2026
- Results posted
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided: The protocol team has not had the opportunity to discuss whether or not IPD data will be shared.
Publications
Andersen RA, Asanuma C, Essick G, Siegel RM. Corticocortical connections of anatomically and physiologically defined subdivisions within the inferior parietal lobule. J Comp Neurol. 1990 Jun 1;296(1):65-113. doi: 10.1002/cne.902960106.
PubMed 2358530Baizer JS, Ungerleider LG, Desimone R. Organization of visual inputs to the inferior temporal and posterior parietal cortex in macaques. J Neurosci. 1991 Jan;11(1):168-90. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.11-01-00168.1991.
PubMed 1702462Barbas H, Mesulam MM. Organization of afferent input to subdivisions of area 8 in the rhesus monkey. J Comp Neurol. 1981 Aug 10;200(3):407-31. doi: 10.1002/cne.902000309.
PubMed 7276245Teichmann L, Hebart MN, Baker CI. Dynamic Representation of Multidimensional Object Properties in the Human Brain. J Neurosci. 2026 Mar 4;46(9):e1057252026. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1057-25.2026.
PubMed 41629159Wardle SG, Rispoli B, Roopchansingh V, Baker CI. Brief Encounters with Real Objects Modulate the Medial Parietal But Not Occipitotemporal Cortex. J Neurosci. 2025 Dec 10;45(50):e0834252025. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0834-25.2025.
PubMed 41193255Kan C, Stirnberg R, Montequin M, Gulban OF, Morgan AT, Bandettini PA, Huber L. T1234: A distortion-matched structural scan solution to misregistration of high resolution fMRI data. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Aug;94(2):713-723. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30480. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
PubMed 40079433Japee S, Jordan J, Licht J, Lokey S; Moebius Syndrome Research Consortium; Chen G, Snow J, Jabs EW, Webb BD, Engle EC, Manoli I, Baker C, Ungerleider LG. Inability to move one's face dampens facial expression perception. Cortex. 2023 Dec;169:35-49. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.08.014. Epub 2023 Sep 30.
PubMed 37852041Avery JA, Carrington M, Martin A. A common neural code for representing imagined and inferred tastes. Prog Neurobiol. 2023 Apr;223:102423. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102423. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
PubMed 36805499Bainbridge WA, Baker CI. Multidimensional memory topography in the medial parietal cortex identified from neuroimaging of thousands of daily memory videos. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 31;13(1):6508. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34075-1.
PubMed 36316315Liu TT, Fu JZ, Chai Y, Japee S, Chen G, Ungerleider LG, Merriam EP. Layer-specific, retinotopically-diffuse modulation in human visual cortex in response to viewing emotionally expressive faces. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 22;13(1):6302. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33580-7.
PubMed 36273204Teichmann L, Moerel D, Rich AN, Baker CI. The nature of neural object representations during dynamic occlusion. Cortex. 2022 Aug;153:66-86. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.009. Epub 2022 Apr 26.
PubMed 35597052Hall EH, Bainbridge WA, Baker CI. Highly similar and competing visual scenes lead to diminished object but not spatial detail in memory drawings. Memory. 2022 Mar;30(3):279-292. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2021.2010761. Epub 2021 Dec 16.
PubMed 34913412Gotts SJ, Milleville SC, Martin A. Enhanced inter-regional coupling of neural responses and repetition suppression provide separate contributions to long-term behavioral priming. Commun Biol. 2021 Apr 20;4(1):487. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02002-7.
PubMed 33879819Groen IIA, Silson EH, Pitcher D, Baker CI. Theta-burst TMS of lateral occipital cortex reduces BOLD responses across category-selective areas in ventral temporal cortex. Neuroimage. 2021 Apr 15;230:117790. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117790. Epub 2021 Jan 23.
PubMed 33497776Avery JA, Liu AG, Ingeholm JE, Gotts SJ, Martin A. Viewing images of foods evokes taste quality-specific activity in gustatory insular cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Jan 12;118(2):e2010932118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2010932118.
PubMed 33384331
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 5 Nov 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Studies of Object Perception, Identification, Localization, and Memory
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT00001360
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 930170
- Conditions
- Healthy Volunteer
- Keywords
- Cognition, Vision, Cortex, Visual Processing, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Natural History
- Study type
- Observational
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 4,100 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)US National Institutes of Health
- Study start
- 17 Sep 1993 (actual)
- First posted
- 4 Nov 1999 (estimated)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The purpose of this study is to use brain imaging technology to measure changes in blood flow to areas in the brain as individuals perform intellectual tasks.
This study will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine blood flow to areas of the brain as participants engage in tasks associated with visual perception, visual recognition, and memory.
Detailed description
Objective:
Our goal is to study the functional organization of the intact human brain by combining cognitive tasks and neuroimaging. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) will be used to measure brain activity in healthy human subjects engaged in performing cognitive tasks. These tasks will address specific questions concerning the neural systems that mediate perception, attention, memory, decision-making, emotion, plasticity and social interactions. fMRI and MEG, respectively, will be employed to investigate the spatial and temporal aspects of these neural systems.
Study Population:
Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65, who are in good general health will be recruited from the local community and studied under this minimal risk protocol.
Design:
Subjects will perform cognitive tasks in behavioral and/or neuroimaging sessions (fMRI or MEG).
Outcome Measures:
Behavior as performance on cognitive tasks, and brain activity (fMRI and MEG) will be combined to yield information about the neural correlates and processes underlying different aspects of human cognition including visual perception, memory, learning, emotion, social cognition, decision-making and attention.
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Cross-sectional
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | – | –Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65 who are in good general health. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
- Study population
- Normal volunteer participants aged 18-65, who are in good general health will be recruited from the local community and studied under this minimal risk protocol.
Key inclusion criteria (2 listed)
- Healthy adults, with at least a high school education, aged 18 to 65 years, will be recruited to participate in the study.
- Able to read and write in English to guarantee understanding of all written and spoken instructions, which are in English.
Key exclusion criteria (11 listed)
- Subjects will be excluded if they:
- have evidence of, or a history of:
- major medical, neurological or psychiatric illness
- serious head injury
- learning disability-drug or alcohol abuse or dependence in the past 3 months, except nicotine
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Primary outcome
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging.
Time frame: ongoing
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 5 Nov 2026.
- Background: PubMed 2358530Andersen RA, Asanuma C, Essick G, Siegel RM. Corticocortical connections of anatomically and physiologically defined subdivisions within the inferior parietal lobule. J Comp Neurol. 1990 Jun 1;296(1):65-113. doi: 10.1002/cne.902960106.
- Background: PubMed 1702462Baizer JS, Ungerleider LG, Desimone R. Organization of visual inputs to the inferior temporal and posterior parietal cortex in macaques. J Neurosci. 1991 Jan;11(1):168-90. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.11-01-00168.1991.
- Background: PubMed 7276245Barbas H, Mesulam MM. Organization of afferent input to subdivisions of area 8 in the rhesus monkey. J Comp Neurol. 1981 Aug 10;200(3):407-31. doi: 10.1002/cne.902000309.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 41629159Teichmann L, Hebart MN, Baker CI. Dynamic Representation of Multidimensional Object Properties in the Human Brain. J Neurosci. 2026 Mar 4;46(9):e1057252026. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1057-25.2026.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 41193255Wardle SG, Rispoli B, Roopchansingh V, Baker CI. Brief Encounters with Real Objects Modulate the Medial Parietal But Not Occipitotemporal Cortex. J Neurosci. 2025 Dec 10;45(50):e0834252025. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0834-25.2025.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 40079433Kan C, Stirnberg R, Montequin M, Gulban OF, Morgan AT, Bandettini PA, Huber L. T1234: A distortion-matched structural scan solution to misregistration of high resolution fMRI data. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Aug;94(2):713-723. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30480. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 37852041Japee S, Jordan J, Licht J, Lokey S; Moebius Syndrome Research Consortium; Chen G, Snow J, Jabs EW, Webb BD, Engle EC, Manoli I, Baker C, Ungerleider LG. Inability to move one's face dampens facial expression perception. Cortex. 2023 Dec;169:35-49. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.08.014. Epub 2023 Sep 30.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 36805499Avery JA, Carrington M, Martin A. A common neural code for representing imagined and inferred tastes. Prog Neurobiol. 2023 Apr;223:102423. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102423. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 36316315Bainbridge WA, Baker CI. Multidimensional memory topography in the medial parietal cortex identified from neuroimaging of thousands of daily memory videos. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 31;13(1):6508. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34075-1.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 36273204Liu TT, Fu JZ, Chai Y, Japee S, Chen G, Ungerleider LG, Merriam EP. Layer-specific, retinotopically-diffuse modulation in human visual cortex in response to viewing emotionally expressive faces. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 22;13(1):6302. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33580-7.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 35597052Teichmann L, Moerel D, Rich AN, Baker CI. The nature of neural object representations during dynamic occlusion. Cortex. 2022 Aug;153:66-86. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.009. Epub 2022 Apr 26.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 34913412Hall EH, Bainbridge WA, Baker CI. Highly similar and competing visual scenes lead to diminished object but not spatial detail in memory drawings. Memory. 2022 Mar;30(3):279-292. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2021.2010761. Epub 2021 Dec 16.
- NIH Clinical Center Detailed Web PageLink provided by the sponsor.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided. The protocol team has not had the opportunity to discuss whether or not IPD data will be shared.
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Screening Protocol
Pain
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Christopher I Baker, Ph.D. principal investigator
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
An observational study of Healthy Volunteer, run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 11 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 5 Nov 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact NIMH LBC Volunteer ((301) 827-5157, nimhlbcvolunteer@mail.nih.gov), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Cognitive tasks and neuroimaging. (time frame: ongoing). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00001360, which also lists 49 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 5 Nov 2026.