An interventional study of Face recognition task in Disfigurement of Face, sponsored by NYU Langone Health. Completed at 1 site in United States. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-02-27.
Sponsored by NYU Langone Health · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
The purpose of the proposed study is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how a change in facial appearance is initially represented in brain circuits and then alters over time, as the new face becomes recognized as "me".
Investigators will try to identify areas of the brain responsible for processing and storing information about self-facial recognition; Examine how these areas of the brain respond to images of "self" and "non-self" and; Investigate how the brain responds, over time, to changes in facial recognition, particularly at time points: i) prior to facial injury, ii) post-injury but prior to facial transplantation, and iii) after receiving facial transplantation.
Before surgery, investigators will compare activity in the brain when participants are looking at their pre-injury and their injured face with activity when they are looking at the persons face with whom they are familiar with. This will identify whether there are differences between how the brain responds when patients view their current facial appearance and when viewing their face before facial disfigurement. Investigators will then scan the patients post-operatively when the transplant team deems the patient ready; this will depend on reduction of post-operative swelling, improved communication with the treatment team, and patient psychological status. Activity in the brain will be compared when participants are looking at pictures of the familiar other person, with pictures of their pre-injury, pre-transplant disfigured face and pictures of their post-transplant facial appearance. Participants will be scanned again, at least two months later, with the same set of stimuli. Activity in the brain will be compared when participants look at their pre-transplant disfigured face and their new face, compared with activity when they look at the familiar other. This will allow investigators to see the differences in how the brain responds to the new facial appearance over time.
NYU Langone Health is the lead sponsor of 1,391 studies on the registry; 254 are open to participants now.
Of its 227 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 191 (84%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Participants must have none of the following, which cannot safely be removed without risk or discomfort while they enter the MRI unit:
Participants will also be excluded on the grounds of safety and comfort inside the MRI scanner if they have one of the following underlying conditions
Participants will also be excluded on the grounds of MRI data quality for the following reasons:
Participants will be imaged in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner (MRI)
Behavioral: Face recognition task
Participants will be imaged in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner (MRI). Patients for whom a pre-transplant fMRI was obtained will undergo functional MRI scanning at three-points post-transplant (approximately 2 and 4 months +/- 2 months post-operation and again at 1 year +/- 3 months post-transplant).
Behavioral: Face recognition task
Inside the MRI scanner and during the experiment, participants will be asked to make judgments about the identity they perceived in each morphed picture.
Average percentage of the self in the morphs that participants judge to be "like self" for the self- face before disfigurement,
This will be done by means of a series of repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVA statistical tests) using a computer program - the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
Time frame: 5 Years
Average percentage of the self in the morphs that participants judge to be "like self" for the self- face before before surgery
This will be done by means of a series of repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVA statistical tests) using a computer program - the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
Time frame: 5 Years
Average percentage of the self in the morphs that participants judge to be "like self" for the self- face after surgery.
This will be done by means of a series of repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVA statistical tests) using a computer program - the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
Time frame: 5 Years
This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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