memory and anxiety disorders stress disorders
Conditions
Interventions
Half of the subjects will undergo a slightly modified version of the Socially
Evaluated Cold Pressure Task (SECPT
Schwabe, Haddad, & Schachinger, 2008) to
induce stress. The other half will undergo a control condition meant to cause
no stress. Furthermore, half the subjects of the stress- and the non
stress-gr
the other participants will receive placebo.
Sponsors
Universitair Medisch Centrum Sint Radboud
Eligibility
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: - Male, healthy volunteers - Age 18 - 35 years - Normal or corrected-to-normal vision - Normal uncorrected hearing - Body mass index between 18.5 and 30 - Willingness and ability to give written informed consent and willingness and ability to understand the nature and content, to participate and to comply with the study requirements
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: - Anuria, - Acute or history of renal insufficiency / impairment of renal excretory function (or creatinine levels > 1.1 mg/dl at screening) - Hyperkalemia (or potassium levels of > 5.0 mEq/L at screening) - History of psychiatric treatment /current psychiatric treatment - History of neurological treatment /current neurological treatment - History of endocrine treatment /current endocrine treatment - History of autonomic failure (e.g., vasovagal reflex syncope) - History of psychotropic medication (e.g. antidepressants) - History of hepatic impairments - History of cardiovascular diseases - Hypotension ( 100 at rest) - Use of any medication on a regular basis - Metal objects in or around the body - Irregular sleep/wake rhythm (e.g., regular nightshifts or cross timeline travel) - Claustrophobia - Use of recreational drugs weekly or more often - Smoking of more than 5 cigarettes per day - Average use of more than 3 alcoholic beverages daily and self-reported inability or un-ease to cease drinking alcohol for 24 hours prior to testing. - Caffeine consumption 3 hours before testing - Professional sports or participation in competitions (as Spironolacton can lead to a positive doping test)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| At the behavioural level, the main study parameter in the spatial memory task is accuracy (i.e. how well subjects remember the right location for a given object learned earlier) and the strategy used (i.e., automatic stimulus response association or elaborate spatial map strategy). For fear acquisition we assess how fast and accurate subjects learn the relationship between specific stimuli and threat using skin conductance responses. At the brain system level, we seek to investigate whether neural response patterns obtained by fMRI can reveal the neural mechanism by which MR activation is causing stress induced changes in spatial memory and fear learning. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| - Baseline levels of salivary cortisol (the first 3 saliva samples are used to compute an individual baseline cortisol level per participant) - Changes in blood pressure and heart rate - Changes in resting state connectivity due to stress and administration of an MR blocker - Personality and life events questionnaires:These questionnaires partly ask for very private details (such as abuse in early childhood) but are important as stress, early life experiences and personality traits have substantial impacts on endocrine measures, brain development and cognitive performance in adulthood. Thus we aim to use the following questionnaires: • State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). • Life Threatening Events (LTE) (Brugha & Cragg, 1990). • Shortened Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI; Cloninger, 1994). • Trier Inventory of Chronic Stress (Trier Inventory of Chronic Stress, TICS-LE. Unpublished English Version). • Herinneringen aan de opvoeding, short form (EMBU-s; Arrindell et al., 1999), a questionnaire on early life parental care. - Mood state questionnaires: • Positive Affect Negative Affect (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988). • State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger et al., 1970) to assess state anxiety. • Mood rating scale (Bond & Lader, 1974), extended with 8 items to assess evaluation of the study situation. | — |
Countries
Netherlands
Outcome results
None listed