Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Completed
Administrative data
| NCT number |
NCT04562974 |
| Other study ID # |
2020-A01592-37 |
| Secondary ID |
2020-A01592-37 |
| Status |
Completed |
| Phase |
N/A
|
| First received |
|
| Last updated |
|
| Start date |
September 3, 2021 |
| Est. completion date |
March 2, 2022 |
Study information
| Verified date |
May 2022 |
| Source |
University Hospital, Grenoble |
| Contact |
n/a |
| Is FDA regulated |
No |
| Health authority |
|
| Study type |
Interventional
|
Clinical Trial Summary
Although traditional neuropsychological models associate medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions
to memory, and the hippocampus to episodic memory, there is growing evidence supporting an
alternative view. The representational view of the MTL proposes that such regions depends on
the representations processed rather than the cognitive processes. The aim of this project is
to characterise the role played by MTL areas, and particularly the hippocampus, in mnemonic
and non-mnemonic cognition. Hypotheses stemming from the representational view will thus be
tested, using functional MRI among young healthy participants.
Description:
Traditional neuropsychological models associate the medial temporal lobe (MTL) with episodic
memory. Further, the hippocampus would be responsible for recollection, or the rich and
contextualised retrieval of a memory; whereas the perirhinal cortex (PRC) would process
familiarity, or the feeling that a stimulus has been encountered before, without remembering
where or when it happened. However, there is growing evidence questioning this view, and
supporting an alternative proposal. The representational view of the MTL proposes that such
regions would not be organised according to cognitive processes, but rather according to the
representations (or the mnemonic content, represented by a pattern of neuronal spikes. A
2018-fMRI study demonstrated that the engagement of the hippocampus in recollection depends
on the presence of a spatial scene in the memory that is retrieved, and not on the
reconstructive nature of the retrieval. However, this demonstration is incomplete, as the
only process that was investigated is recollection. The current project aims to extend such
results to memory processes such as familiarity, and even to non-mnemonic processes such as
visual discrimination. A fMRI study will thus be conducted, where 30 healthy participants
will first perform a visual-discrimination task on scenes and objects, before taking a
recognition task, in which images will either be presented in full or in the form of circular
cues only. Multivariate-Pattern Analyses (MVPA) will complete traditional fMRI analyses, in
order to determine whether activity in the MTL can be categorised on the basis of
representations through a machine-learning classifier.
