Recruiting

Behavioral Intervention

Sponsor:

Trustees of Princeton University

Code:

NCT07122739

Conditions

Healthy

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 50

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Active Real-time fMRI Neurofeedback

Sham Real-time fMRI neurofeedback

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study tests the efficacy of a new behavioral intervention with the goal of reducing spontaneous recovery of threat expectancy in healthy adults. This real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback intervention delivers feedback based on a functional connection between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.

Conditions

Healthy

Study ID

NCT07122739

Start date

Jul 17, 2025

Status verified date

Feb, 2026

Completion date

Jun, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 50

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults aged 18-50
  • No history of psychiatric disorders or neurological disorders affecting the central nervous system.
  • Are not currently taking psychoactive medication or drugs of abuse.
  • Must be eligible to enter an MRI (i.e., no permanent metal or medical implants)
  • Normal color vision
  • Right-handed
  • Full reading and writing English comprehension
  • Must exhibit spontaneous recovery behavior as determined by an experimenter in a prescreening experimental session
  • Must be able to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnancy (female participants)
  • Outside of age range
  • History of psychiatric or neurological disease
  • Currently taking psychoactive medication or drugs of abuse
  • Color blindness
  • Primary left-handedness
  • Less than full reading and writing English comprehension
  • Do not exhibit spontaneous recovery behavior as determined by an experimenter in a prescreening experimental session
  • Refusing to provide informed consent

Study Design

Enrollment

40 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Active Neurofeedback

Active neurofeedback will reinforce negative dlPFC-hippocampal functional connectivity, as this is expected to increase memory control ability.

sham comparator: Control Neurofeedback

Participants in the control neurofeedback group will receive the same instructions as the experimental group, but will receive sham neurofeedback.

Interventions

Active Real-time fMRI Neurofeedback

Active neurofeedback to target a functional connection associated with increased memory control ability

Sham Real-time fMRI neurofeedback

Sham neurofeedback

Primary outcome measure

  • Spontaneous recovery behavior [ Time Frame: Baseline and fourth fMRI session (out of four total fMRI sessions). At most 60 days will elapse between the start of data collection for a participant and their final fMRI session. ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Augustin C. Hennings, Ph.D.

609-258-5032gus.hennings@princeton.edu

Locations

Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Recruiting

Princeton, New Jersey, United States, 08540

Contacts

Augustin C. Hennings, Ph.D.

gus.hennings@princeton.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Trustees of Princeton University

Last update posted

Feb 23, 2026

Last verified

Feb, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Trustees of Princeton University on 2026-02-23.