Healthy
Conditions
Brief summary
The central aim of this study is to characterize how the costs of acute and lifetime stress affect the neural architecture for decision-making in healthy humans. Investigators will use behavioral choice paradigms to measure how the costs of stress influence decisions about rewards (e.g., foods, money) as well as decisions about the use of self-control strategies. They will further examine associations between these stress measures and other decision variables commonly studied in our lab which have well-understood mechanisms, such as risk preferences. This behavioral work lays the foundation for an fMRI experiment that combines our measures of the behavioral costs of stress with neural measures of brain changes. Acute stress will be measured using a physiological stressor (cold-pressor task) coupled with saliva sample collection for cortisol analysis. Lifetime stress will be measured using a computerized life stress survey. We will study three cohorts: One purely behavioral cohort will be examined on-site (n=60). In a smaller subset of participants (n=40), investigators will measure neural activity changes in relevant brain areas as measured with MRI during decisions to use self-control in the presence of rewards. In a larger sample (n=500) the correlation between participants' risk preferences and lifetime stress exposure at scale using Amazon Mechanical Turk subjects will be measured.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCold-Pressor Task (CPT)
The CPT involves participants submerging their dominant forearm in ice-water (0-4°C) for 3 minutes.
BEHAVIORALControl CPT
The control CPT involves participants submerging their dominant forearm in warm water (\ 30°C) for 3 minutes.
DEVICEfMRI
Participants in the neuroimaging cohort will complete up to two fMRI experimental sessions on different days, with at least a day between sessions, each lasting approximately 2 hours. Imaging data will be collected with a Prisma 3T head- only scanner equipped with a head coil from Nova Medical.
Sponsors
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
NYU Langone Health
Study design
Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 64 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* English as a native language * Corrected-to-normal vision * Individuals on diets to maintain or lose weight, or those not on a diet * All races, ethnicities, and cultures
Exclusion criteria
* For all fMRI studies we will exclude participants who meet one of the standard CBI MRI
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Amount in Dollars ($) Participants are Willing to Allocate to Avoid Use of Self-Control during Decision-Making Task | Up to 2 Hours | Amount participants would be willing to spend to avoid use of self-control will be evaluated during a decision-making task in Cohorts 1 and 2. |
| Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) Overall Severity Score | 60 Minutes | Cumulative lifetime stress will be quantified as a score (Overall Severity Score; OSS) derived from the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) questionnaire. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed