The Sense of Agency

Motor Activity Clinical Trial

— SOA  

Official title:

Behavioural and Neurofunctional Correlates of the Sense of Agency

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03361332
• Other study ID #: SOA
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: November 28, 2017
• Last updated: December 4, 2017
• Start date: April 8, 2017
• Est. completion date: January 23, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: December 2017
• Source: Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi
• Contact: Sara Zacchetti
• Phone: +390266214057
• Email: sara.zacchetti[@]grupposandonato.it
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The ability to recognize of being the actors of the behaviour and its consequences, the so-called "Sense of Agency" (SoA), is a crucial component of self-awareness. One key aspect is the distinction from a mere inference about the causality between an act and its consequences and the sense of being the agent of it. Despite a large number of behavioural studies, there is unsatisfactory evidence on the functional anatomical underpinnings of the SoA and the distinction between causality and the SoA proper. Here, the investigators use an implicit measurement of the SoA and its modulations during fMRI: the intentional binding phenomenon (IB). The ivestigators also study how the SoA and the ensuing neurophysiological correlates are modulated by the presence of a movement disorders, such as Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 50
• Est. completion date: January 23, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: July 29, 2017
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age included between 18 and 65 years

• Right handed

• No contraindication to the fMRI exam

Exclusion Criteria:

• Contraindication to the fMRI exam

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Motor Activity
• Motor Tic Disorders
• Tic Disorders
• Tics

Intervention

Other:
• Behavioral and fMRI
Subjects and patients will perform temporal-judgment-tasks (considered an indirect measure of the sense of agency) in an event-related fMRI setting. In the first task, they will hear a sound either caused by a voluntary key press or by the passive displacement of the same finger by the experimenter. Following each trial, subjects will estimate the delay between the finger movement and the subsequent sound, which will be presented at variable latencies after the key press. There will be also control-trials characterized by the active or passive movement with a subsequent sound presented with a delay that excludes causality inferences.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Italy	IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopedic Hospital	Milan

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Italy, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	BOLD signal changes	The investigators will measure the changes of the BOLD signal associated with the modification of the sense of agency both in healthy subjects and neurological patients.	April 2017 - October 2019