Identifying the Neural Correlates of Mental Simulation in Multi-Step Planning

Planning is the ability to think ahead by considering possible future actions and their consequences. This research study aims to understand how the brain supports multi-step planning by testing whether people simulate promising future move sequences while deciding what to do next. Healthy adult volunteers will learn and play a strategy game called "Four-in-a-Row" (similar to Connect Four). Participants will complete two sessions on successive days: an online behavioral training/playing session and an in-person brain-recording session at New York University. During the brain-recording session, participants will view mid-game board positions and choose the best move while the study team records brain activity (using magnetoencephalography \[MEG\] or functional MRI \[fMRI\]) and eye movements. Data from the game and eye tracking will also be used to fit computational models of planning that help interpret the neural measurements.

NCT Number	NCT07293637
Lead Sponsor	New York University Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Conditions	Decision Making, Cognition, Mental Simulation, Problem Solving, Planning
Enrollment	50 participants
Start Date	2025-07-10
Primary Completion	2026-03 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-08