An observational study in Schizophrenia / Schizoaffective Disorder and Depression / Major Depressive Disorder, sponsored by The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Recruiting at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 60 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-23.
Sponsored by The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre · Observational
Schizophrenia and depression are among the most disabling disorders in all of medicine. Cognitive deficits play a key role in patients' disability, affecting their capacity to contribute actively to society by sustaining employment or academic activity. Moreover, cognitive difficulties tend to persist even after the stabilization of other clinical symptoms. Verbal memory and emotion regulation are two important cognitive domains that are impaired in schizophrenia and depression and are associated with patients' functional outcomes. In this study, brain imaging is used to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying these cognitive deficits in these populations.
This study uses Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) which is a technique that takes a 3D picture of the brain using magnetic fields. It allows researchers to estimate how active different regions of the brain are. The aim of this study is to use fMRI to better understand the cognitive problems that individuals living with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or depression experience.
The study will involve three visits at The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research in Ottawa, Canada. Each visit will last about 2.5 hours long.
Visits 1 and 2: Participants are asked to fill out several questionnaires on a computer. Participants are also asked to answer some questions about their current and past mental health as well as perform some tasks involving general thinking skills.
Visit 3: Participants will complete a brain scan using fMRI. Throughout the experiment, participants will perform three short tasks in the fMRI scanner. Participants will use buttons to answer some questions in response to some words and pictures.
Individuals with an official diagnosis of: Schizophrenia, Schzioaffective or Major Depressive Disorders.
Exclusion Criteria:
Clinical group
Clinical group
Control group
Measuring brain activity using resting-state and task-based functional MRI
To better understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive problems in our populations of interest
Time frame: Final Visit (Visit 3)
Plan to share: Yes — De-identified data collected from this study may be shared with other researchers at the Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research for analyses and re-analyses. Variables of the study and scripts used for analyses will be made available to the public. De-identified data will also be shared with the general public upon request. Data that can connect with participants' identity will NOT be used or shared for analyses.
Supporting information: Sap, Analytic code
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
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The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre