Measuring how the brain and body respond when people choose to work for rewards
A naturalistic multimodal platform for capturing brain-body interactions in people during physical effort-based decision making
This project uses a new system to record brain and body signals while people decide whether to expend physical effort for rewards, aimed at helping people with motivational problems like depression, Parkinson's, or schizophrenia.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Georgia Institute of Technology NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Atlanta, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11260165 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would take part in immersive tasks where you move and make effortful choices in a virtual environment while wearing sensors. The HORMES system synchronizes measurements across brain signals, bodily responses, movement, and clinical/affective behavior in real time. Researchers will use a naturalistic effort-based decision-making task that requires walking or other physical effort to obtain rewards. The goal is to capture how decisions, feelings, and body signals link together in everyday-like behavior.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are adults who experience reduced motivation or effort for rewards (for example from depression, Parkinson's disease, or schizophrenia) and who can safely perform the study's physical walking or movement tasks.
Not a fit: People with severe mobility limitations, unstable medical conditions, or severe cognitive impairment that prevent safe participation in the physical or VR tasks are unlikely to benefit from joining this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could reveal measurable brain–body signatures of motivational problems that help guide better diagnosis, monitoring, or future treatments.
How similar studies have performed: Previous work on effort-based decision-making and multimodal monitoring exists, but combining immersive, naturalistic locomotion tasks with synchronized brain–body measurement is a novel approach that is still early-stage.
Where this research is happening
Atlanta, United States
- Georgia Institute of Technology — Atlanta, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Rozell, Christopher John — Georgia Institute of Technology
- Study coordinator: Rozell, Christopher John
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.