Memory, Short-TermNCT06072378
The Computational and Neural Mechanisms Linking Decision-making and Memory in Humans
A study testing Value-manipulation in people with Memory, Short-Term, run by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Learning to make good decisions in the present, and accurately recalling events and information from the past, are critical aspects of human cognition that are often impaired in many psychiatric disorders. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 65 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Memory, Short-Term
- What is being tested?
- Value-manipulation
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 50 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 31 Oct 2023to 1 Sep 2028
- Phase
- Interventional
- 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
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Has seizure activity which is deemed non-responsive to standard pharmacological intervention(s), as determined by treating Neurologist and established clinical practices
- Has elected to receive clinically indicated intracranial EEG (electrocorticography (ECoG), stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)) and/or temporal responsive neurostimulation (RNS) for medication-refractory epilepsy outside of this research study, as determined by treating clinician(s) and per current clinical practice
- Capacity to provide written informed consent
- Language proficiency in English or Spanish
- Willing and able to comply with all study-related procedures
Who cannot join
- History of psychosis, such as in the context of depressive or manic episode.
- Active suicidal ideation with intent, suicide attempt within the last six months, or other serious suicide risk
- Inability to provide informed consent or reliably participate in study assessments, as per the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA; score < 26) or in the opinion of the evaluating neuropsychologist.
- Individuals unwilling or unable to undergo electrode implantation procedures
- Medical contraindications to neurosurgery or for general anesthesia, neurosurgery, or an MRI scan (required for electrode implantation)
- Neurological disorder other than epilepsy or other significant brain pathology, if contraindicated in the opinion of implanting neurosurgeon.
- Women who are pregnant
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
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901
Salman E Qasim
About this study
Learning to make good decisions in the present, and accurately recalling events and information from the past, are critical aspects of human cognition that are often impaired in many psychiatric disorders. This project aims to identify the how the choices individuals make influence what, and how, people remember by combining disparate techniques in computational modeling and direct brain recordings in human subjects. The researcher developed a dual-task paradigm, probing how decisions in one task affect immediate recognition memory. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying model-free RL's influence on memory, the researcher will record local field potential (LFP) and single neuron activity in various brain regions as epilepsy patients perform the proposed task. The results of this project will identify specific neurocomputational mechanisms unifying decision-making and memory processes.
- Conditions
- Memory, Short-Term
- Being tested
- Value-manipulation
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Value-manipulationBehavioural
During the decision-making task, different choices are assigned different values probabilistically.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Value-manipulation | Experimental | Participants with epilepsy will complete a behavioral task in which they use a laptop computer to do a decision-making and memory task. Receives: Behavioral: Value-manipulation |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Local-field potentials changes
Detection of local-field potentials (LFPs) in the various regions (hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex). Local field potentials are the biological voltages recorded by macroelectrodes implanted in participant's subcortical regions as part of their treatment for epilepsy. LFP changes (measured as increases or decreases in voltage) as a function of participant behavior will be recorded, and in response to the task manipulation of the value of choices during the decision-making task
Measured: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Firing rate changes
Single-neuron activity recorded from the hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex. Single-neuron activity refers the micro-scale changes in single-neuron action potentials recorded by microelectrodes implanted in subcortical regions. Firing rate changes (measured as difference in spikes/seconds [Hz]) will be reported for neurons as a function of how behavior changes when the value of choices is altered.
Measured: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Secondary outcomes (3)
Reaction time
Reaction times involve measuring how quickly the participant makes each choice during the decision-making and memory tasks, in milliseconds. This will be recorded by logging keypresses and mouse inputs to the behavioral computers. Slow reaction times indicate increased cognitive processing.
Measured: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Number of hit rates for decision-making
Choices in decision-making task involved logging the decision-making selections that participants make. This will be recorded by logging keypresses and mouse inputs (left or right) to the behavioral computers. This will be used to track whether participants decisions change when value manipulations occur.
Measured: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Number of hit rates for Memory performance
Memory performance involved logging the memory-recognition selections that participants make. This will be recorded by logging keypresses and mouse inputs (old or new) to the behavioral computers. This will be used to track whether participants memory performance changes when value manipulations occur.
Measured: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted10 Oct 2023
- Study start31 Oct 2023
- Primary completion1 Sep 2028 (estimated)
- Study completion1 Sep 2028 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Memory, Short-TermStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyThe 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
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 50 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Salman Ehtesham Qasim, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Investigators
- Salman E Qasim, PhD, Principal investigator, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06072378
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- Pro2024002100
- Other IDs
- K99MH132873
- Status last verified
- Dec 2025
- First submitted
- 2 Oct 2023
- Last updated
- 17 Dec 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: Access to the raw, de-identified behavioral and neural data will be limited to qualified researchers due to the potential for misuse of participant demographic and neural data within 12 months following article publication. Datasets generated by this project will be made available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA).
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 17 Dec 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- The Computational and Neural Mechanisms Linking Decision-making and Memory in Humans
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06072378
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- Pro2024002100
- Conditions
- Memory, Short-Term
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 50 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Study start
- 31 Oct 2023 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 1 Sep 2028 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 1 Sep 2028 (estimated)
- First posted
- 10 Oct 2023 (actual)
- 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.
Learning to make good decisions in the present, and accurately recalling events and information from the past, are critical aspects of human cognition that are often impaired in many psychiatric disorders. This project aims to identify the how the choices individuals make influence what, and how, people remember by combining disparate techniques in computational modeling and direct brain recordings in human subjects. The researcher developed a dual-task paradigm, probing how decisions in one task affect immediate recognition memory. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying model-free RL's influence on memory, the researcher will record local field potential (LFP) and single neuron activity in various brain regions as epilepsy patients perform the proposed task. The results of this project will identify specific neurocomputational mechanisms unifying decision-making and memory processes.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Value-manipulation | Experimental | Behavioral: Value-manipulationParticipants with epilepsy will complete a behavioral task in which they use a laptop computer to do a decision-making and memory task. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Has seizure activity which is deemed non-responsive to standard pharmacological intervention(s), as determined by treating Neurologist and established clinical practices
- Has elected to receive clinically indicated intracranial EEG (electrocorticography (ECoG), stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)) and/or temporal responsive neurostimulation (RNS) for medication-refractory epilepsy outside of this research study, as determined by treating clinician(s) and per current clinical practice
- Capacity to provide written informed consent
- Language proficiency in English or Spanish
- Willing and able to comply with all study-related procedures
Key exclusion criteria (7 listed)
- History of psychosis, such as in the context of depressive or manic episode.
- Active suicidal ideation with intent, suicide attempt within the last six months, or other serious suicide risk
- Inability to provide informed consent or reliably participate in study assessments, as per the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA; score < 26) or in the opinion of the evaluating neuropsychologist.
- Individuals unwilling or unable to undergo electrode implantation procedures
- Medical contraindications to neurosurgery or for general anesthesia, neurosurgery, or an MRI scan (required for electrode implantation)
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Value-manipulationDuring the decision-making task, different choices are assigned different values probabilistically. | Behavioural | Value-manipulation |
Primary outcome
Local-field potentials changes
Time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Detection of local-field potentials (LFPs) in the various regions (hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex). Local field potentials are the biological voltages recorded by macroelectrodes implanted in participant's subcortical regions as part of their treatment for epilepsy. LFP changes (measured as increases or decreases in voltage) as a function of participant behavior will be recorded, and in response to the task manipulation of the value of choices during the decision-making task
Firing rate changes
Time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Single-neuron activity recorded from the hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex. Single-neuron activity refers the micro-scale changes in single-neuron action potentials recorded by microelectrodes implanted in subcortical regions. Firing rate changes (measured as difference in spikes/seconds [Hz]) will be reported for neurons as a function of how behavior changes when the value of choices is altered.
3 secondary outcomes
Reaction time
Time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Number of hit rates for decision-making
Time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
Number of hit rates for Memory performance
Time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay
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 17 Dec 2025.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. Access to the raw, de-identified behavioral and neural data will be limited to qualified researchers due to the potential for misuse of participant demographic and neural data within 12 months following article publication. Datasets generated by this project will be made available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA).
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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.
Salman E Qasim, PhD principal investigator
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Value-manipulation in people with Memory, Short-Term, run by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 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 5 inclusion and 7 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 17 Dec 2025. 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 Salman E Qasim, PhD (212-824-9531, salman.qasim@mssm.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Local-field potentials changes (time frame: During task participation, approx. 30-45 min in the first 2 weeks of hospital stay). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
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 17 Dec 2025; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 2 Nov 2026.