Stress & Self-Control Costs

NYU Langone Health

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Self-Control

Treatments: Behavioral: Trier Social Stress Test (TSST); Behavioral: Modified Non-Stress TSST; Behavioral: Cold-Pressor Task (CPT); Behavioral: Modified Non-Stress CPT; Device: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT05795179

22-01630

Details and patient eligibility

About

Self-control failures are a universal challenge for healthy and clinical populations. Recent work suggests these failures may arise from excessive cognitive costs associated with exercising self-control, yet the mechanisms underlying these costs are unknown. To address this, the investigators will use a validated decision-making task that measures how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to restrict access to tempting rewards that may lead to self-control failures. The investigators will examine these costs to identify their cognitive, neural and affective mechanisms. First, the investigators will identify the cognitive and computational mechanism that gives rise to self-control costs. Second, the investigators will characterize the neural correlates of self-control costs and identify neural mediators and connectivity patterns stemming from these costs. Finally, the investigators will examine how different classes of stressors (physical, social, or lifetime stress) shape the behavioral and neural representations of self-control costs.

Enrollment: 300 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18-70 years of age, able to speak, read, and write fluently in English
• be willing and able to follow study procedures and provide informed consent.
• Must additionally confirm they are on a diet to maintain/lose weight and are implementing/maintaining dietary changes.

Exclusion criteria

• History of or medication for neurologic or psychiatric disease
• High-blood pressure or heart condition
• Diabetes, food allergies, metabolic disorders or history of eating disorder
• Use of corticosteroids or beta-blockers
• Metallic implants or devices contraindicating magnetic resonance imaging.
• Pregnancy is considered an exclusion criteria due to all stress and scanning procedures, thus pregnant participants will not be permitted to participate in the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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300 participants in 4 patient groups

Physiological Stress

Experimental group

Description:

Healthy dieters will undergo a single-visit neuroimaging study where they will first complete demographic and self-report measures followed by a self-control decision task in an fMRI scanner. Prior to scanning, participants will be assigned to a physiological stress group and complete the corresponding stress task. For the physiological stress group, this task is the Cold-Pressor Task (CPT), a physiological stress task in which participants continuously submerge their hand and forearm in ice-water (0-4°C) for 3 minutes. After the scan, participants will wait for 1 hour in an adjacent study room where they will play out one trial of the decision-making task completed in the scanner.

Treatment:

Device: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Behavioral: Cold-Pressor Task (CPT)

Social Stress

Experimental group

Description:

Healthy dieters will undergo a single-visit neuroimaging study where they will first complete demographic and self-report measures followed by a self-control decision task in an fMRI scanner. Prior to scanning, participants will be assigned to the social stress group and complete the corresponding stress task. For the social stress group, this task is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a psychosocial stressor that requires participants perform a short speech and solve math problems in front of 2 evaluative judges. After the scan, participants will wait for 1 hour in an adjacent study room where they will play out one trial of the decision-making task completed in the scanner.

Treatment:

Device: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Behavioral: Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)

Physiological Non-Stress

Active Comparator group

Description:

Healthy dieters will undergo a single-visit neuroimaging study where they will first complete demographic and self-report measures followed by a self-control decision task in an fMRI scanner. Prior to scanning, participants will be assigned to the physiological non-stress group and complete the corresponding stress task. For the physiological non-stress group, participants will continuously submerge their hand and forearm in warm water for 3 minutes. After the scan, participants will wait for 1 hour in an adjacent study room where they will play out one trial of the decision-making task completed in the scanner.

Treatment:

Device: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Behavioral: Modified Non-Stress CPT

Social Non-Stress

Active Comparator group

Description:

Healthy dieters will undergo a single-visit neuroimaging study where they will first complete demographic and self-report measures followed by a self-control decision task in an fMRI scanner. Prior to scanning, participants will be assigned to the social stress group and complete the corresponding stress task. For the social non-stress group, participants will be asked to prepare for a speech that they will practice alone to themselves and complete math problems alone on a piece of scrap paper. After the scan, participants will wait for 1 hour in an adjacent study room where they will play out one trial of the decision-making task completed in the scanner.

Treatment:

Device: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Behavioral: Modified Non-Stress TSST