The Impact of Familiarity and Emotional Attachment on the Visual Processing of Faces
Data Collection
Summary
Study start date: October 1, 1998
Actual date on which the first participant was enrolled.This functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol uses a face recognition activation task to ascertain how brain activation patterns differ depending on the subject's familiarity with, and emotional attachment to, the person depicted in the visual stimulus. In a series of studies, subjects will view unfamiliar and familiar (including personally familiar and famous) faces; mothers will view pictures of their own child and those of familiar and unfamiliar children; and bereaved and non-bereaved spouses will view pictures of their spouse, other family members, and unfamiliar people. The use of emotionally significant faces as activation stimuli may help to elucidate the neural circuitry underlying interpersonal attachment and psychological responses to loss.
Protocol
This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.80 patients to be enrolled
Total number of participants that the clinical trial aims to recruit.Eligibility
Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria: person's general health condition or prior treatments.Any sex
Biological sex of participants that are eligible to enroll.Healthy volunteers allowed
If individuals who are healthy and do not have the condition being studied can participate.Criteria
INCLUSION CRITERIA: Subjects will be recruited through advertisements within Bethesda and surrounding communities. All subjects must be right-handed. For experiments #1 and 2, subjects will be 20-40 years old. For study #3, subjects will be 45-75 years old. For experiment #2, all subjects will be mothers with a non-adopted child aged 6-12 years old. For experiment #3, subjects in the bereaved group will have become spousally bereaved within the past 6 months. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Subjects will be excluded if they have a history of significant medical disorders (including learning disabilities, seizures, history of head trauma, hypertension, or cerebrovascular disease) or psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse. (An exception to this is that bereaved subjects in experiment #3 will not be excluded if they meet DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder (non-psychotic), adjustment disorder with depressed mood, or bereavement, as long as their current Hamilton-D score is less than 13). Subjects will also be excluded if they take any prescribed medications (including birth control pills), if they are pregnant, or if their vision is inadequate to see the visual stimulus. In addition, subjects in experiment #2 will receive a DICA-P (Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents, Parent Version), and will be excluded if their child meets diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric illness.
Study Centers
These are the hospitals, clinics, or research facilities where the trial is being conducted. You can find the location closest to you and its status.This study has 1 location
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Bethesda, United StatesOpen National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Google Maps