Frequently Asked Questions

Thank you for your interest! Your next steps will be to schedule a phone screen with our study team. The phone screen is estimated to last about 15-20 minutes.

During this phone call, we will provide you with a brief overview of the study and its procedures. If you are interested in moving forward with the study, we will ask you to fill out an online screening form over the phone that will determine your MRI eligibility.

If eligible, we will administer an online consent form to fill out. Lastly, we will explain next steps in the study process and schedule your MRI visit! Directions to the lab can be found on the Resources tab.

To schedule the phone screen please use the link below to access our study’s Calendly!

Yes! Each portion of this study will be compensated with payments of varying amounts. Payments will be given in e-codes and will be dispersed in 2 payments: (1) After in-person visit (2) After stool sample collection kit is returned.

For your participation in the MRI scan, you will receive $75 and a video of your brain. For your completion of the rewards task, you can receive up to an additional $25. For your parking needs at UCLA for the MRI scan, you will also receive a parking voucher.

For the completed RedCap-administered questionnaires you will receive a total of $20. Additionally, you will receive $25 for completing the separate Vioscreen Dietary Survey.

For biological samples, $25 will be rewarded for completing the at-home stool sample kit and $25 will be rewarded for completing the in-lab saliva and buccal cell samples.

• You may choose if you would like to participate in this study. You may withdraw your consent and discontinue participation at any time.
• Whatever decision is made, there will be no penalty to you, and no loss of benefits to which you were otherwise entitled.
• You may refuse to answer any questions that you do not want to answer and remain in the study.
• You may refuse to provide a biological sample or complete a particular task and remain in the study.
• You may refuse to be audio recorded and remain in the study.
• You may refuse to share your data beyond the initial investigators.
• You may refuse for your data to be used for commercial purposes.
• You may request that your data be restricted to specific types of research activities.

Information about you is protected by a Federal Certificate of Confidentiality. Meaning, we cannot be forced to release information about you for any legal proceeding, even if a court of law asks.

Additionally, the Certificate allows us to use information about you for purposes of this research, or to disclose it for other research when allowed by law. The Certificate requires other researchers to also protect the information shared with them.

There are limits to this protection. The Certificate does not protect your information when:

• You or your family voluntarily release information about yourselves.
• You consent to release of information (for example, the uses described in this form, or if you sign release forms for employment, insurance or medical care).
• A federal agency audits or evaluates research that it funds.
• Researchers are required to report possible intent to harm yourself or others, child abuse, elder abuse, or infectious disease cases.
• The Food & Drug Administration requires information as part of overseeing drugs, devices or other products.

Confidentiality will be maintained by means of:

• Any information that is collected as part of this study and that identifies you will remain private and confidential. We will use a study ID number when collecting and analyzing the questionnaires, biospecimen samples, audio recordings, and your MRI scan. Only the researchers conducting this study will have the information that matches the code to any identifying information, such as your name, address, or phone number. The information that matches the code to your identifying information will be kept in a password-protected secure server. Only very few authorized people, who have specifically agreed to protect your identity, will have access to this database. All other researchers and personnel, including those who will be working with your samples, will not have access to any of this identifying information.
• All information from the study will be kept either in encrypted, password-protected files or in a locked office that only Dr. Jennifer Silvers and Dr. Bridget Callaghan have access to. 

While we will not be asking about these topics, if you mention that you intend to harm someone or yourself, we are required to share this information to people who can help you. For example:

• Under California law, we will not keep information about child abuse or elder abuse confidential. If any member of the research staff is given such information, he or she is required to report it to the authorities.
• The research team may not be able to keep confidential thoughts about harming oneself. If you tell the research staff that you are thinking about killing yourself, the research staff will ask more questions about the thoughts. Depending on how strong the thoughts are or how much you feel like hurting yourself, the research staff may give you information for treatment, work with you to find a doctor, trusted family member, or therapist to discuss the thoughts. The research staff may also work with you on a plan that may include getting you to a hospital for safety.

While neither the public nor the controlled-access databases developed for this project will contain information that is traditionally used to identify you, such as your name, address, or telephone number, individuals may develop ways in the future that would allow someone to link your genetic information in our databases back to you. For example, someone could compare information in our databases with information from you (or a blood relative) in another database and be able to identify you (or your blood relative). It also is possible that there could be violations to the security of the computer systems used to store the codes linking your genetic and medical information to you.

In the event of an unexpected breach of confidentiality, a federal law called the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) will help protect you from health insurance or employment discrimination based on genetic information obtained about you. In general, this law makes it illegal for health insurance companies, group health plans, and most employers to discriminate against you based on your genetic information. However, it does not protect you against discrimination by companies that sell life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance.

Any specimens (e.g., saliva, buccal cells, stool, blood) obtained for the purposes of this study will become the property of the University of California. Once you provide the specimens you will not have access to them. The University may share your specimens in the future with other researchers or outside institutions. Information that identifies you will not be shared with anyone outside of UCLA. The specimens will be used for research and such use may result in inventions or discoveries that could become the basis for new products or diagnostic or therapeutic agents. In some instances, these inventions and discoveries may be of potential commercial value and may be patented and licensed by the University. You will not receive any monetary compensation or other benefits derived from any commercial or other products that may be developed from use of the specimens.

Biospecimens (such as blood, tissue, or saliva) collected from you for this study and/or information obtained from your biospecimens may be used in this research or other research, and shared with other organizations. You will not share in any commercial value or profit derived from the use of your biospecimens and/or information obtained from them.

The researchers intend to keep the research data and records in a repository indefinitely. Other researchers will have access to the data for future research.

It is possible that other investigators conducting other research might request that data collected for this study be shared for further research. For example, investigators associated with the government agency supporting this study might make this request. Even if you agree that your data may be shared with other investigators, your name or other personal identifying information would not be revealed. Though your privacy is very important to us and we will use many safety measures to protect your privacy, it is possible that there may be unforeseen privacy risks. For example, although we would not put any personal identifying information about you in a shared database, someone in the future might find some way to link your medical information or other information collected for this study back to you even in the absence of your name or other personal identifying information. Alternatively, there could be violations to the security of the separate computer systems used to store the codes linking your information to you.

This study is safe and poses little to no risk to all participants. A description of any minor discomforts for each portion of the study can be found below.

You will not directly benefit from your participation in this research. The results of the research may help us understand how health is impacted by education.

Your data and/or specimens, including de-identified data and/or specimens may be kept for use in future research.

RISE-Up EA+ study sessions will occur in-person on the UCLA campus within the Semel Institute for Neuroscience. Transportation to the UCLA campus is the responsibility of the participant.

Parking passes will be provided upon arrival so that individuals driving to the UCLA campus will be able to park their cars safely within the Medical Plaza Underground Parking Structure, free of charge!

More information regarding the parking directions can be found in the Resources page, found here.