Generalization and Specificity of Visual Learning During Sleep

ConditionsVisual Learning Healthy Volunteers

Trial statusRecruiting

Trial phaseNot applicable

Trial typeInterventional

Biological sexAll

Age18-30

SponsorBrown University

About this trial

A growing body of evidence suggests that sleep facilitates and is beneficial to perceptual learning. However, the underlying mechanism of this facilitatory action is largely unknown. One must know what type of processing occurs during sleep to clarify the mechanism of sleep facilitating perceptual learning. For this purpose, investigators will obtain highly localized spatio-temporal information about brain activation during sleep using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and polysomnography (PSG) measurement.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

18 - 30 years old

Normal or corrected to normal visual acuity

Disqualifiers

Self-report of visual and eye disorders (cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma)

Drug use (psychoactive drugs, neuroleptic medications, prescription medications that might affect cognitive and motor performance)

History of sleep disorders (sleep apnea, insomnia)

Failure to meet the criteria on the visual acuity test

Trial design

Design model

Single group

Treatments tested in this trial

Visual perceptual learning
Behavioral
Evaluation of the effect of visual training on cortical activity during sleep

Treatment groups

No treatment groups listed

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

Performance change

Visual sensitivity changes will be assessed behaviorally using a psychophysical orientation detection task. Participants will be asked to detect the orientation of a Gabor patch embedded in visual noise. The outcome measure will be the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold at which participants can reliably detect the target orientation (typically defined as 75% correct performance). Lower SNR thresholds indicate greater visual sensitivity.

Time frame

5 weeks

Secondary outcomes

Decoding accuracy

Decoding accuracy will be assessed using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) applied to fMRI data. Pattern classifiers (e.g., support vector machine) will be trained to distinguish neural activity patterns corresponding to different stimulus orientations. Classification accuracy (percentage correct) will be used as the primary metric of decoding performance. Analyses will focus on predefined regions of interest including early visual areas.

Time frame

5 weeks

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Brown University

Lead sponsor

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

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