LPFC Organization in Emotion-Duration Difference Estimation

To support optimal behavior in daily life, goals and responses following emotional events should ideally incorporate not only the valence and intensity of prior emotional episodes but also their temporal features, such as the relative duration of positive vs. negative attributes. However, how specific brain regions contribute to the integration of temporal and emotional information and promote goal-directed response remains unknown. The goal of this study is to examine how specific brain regions track both emotional and temporal information of dynamic emotional events to inform other related brain regions to guide goal-oriented and context-appropriate actions. The investigators will scan healthy human participants using functional MRI (fMRI) while they view emotional image sequences and track the associated emotional and temporal (duration) information, and act accordingly. The investigators will employ multivariate patterns analysis and pattern similarity analysis to identify brain regions that represent (can decode) emotion, time, and their combined signals, as well as brain regions that represent the associated action goal. In addition, to infer the causal contributions of these brain regions in forming task-relevant representations (emotion, time, and action goal), the same participants will be recruited to receive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in these regions.

NCT Number	NCT06276400
Lead Sponsor	University of California, Santa Barbara
Conditions	Healthy
Enrollment	50 participants
Start Date	2024-01-29
Primary Completion	2028-03-31 (estimated)
Study Completion	2028-03-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-05-04