The primary objective is to establish, in healthy subjects, the time-dependent effects of social stress on the tendency to generalize neural, emotional and fearful memories to new contexts. The secondary objective is to assess whether several…
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Other condition
Synonym
Health condition
onderzoek naar de effecten van stress
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
The main study parameter of this study is performance on the Contextual Memory
Task and the Fear Generalization Task either directly after the Trier Social
Stress Test or approximately 180 minutes later.
Secondary outcome
Neuroendocrinological, psychophysiological and self-report markers of anxiety
and stress levels will be measured, to determine their potential role in the
relation between social stress and memory contextualization.
Background summary
The circumstances surrounding an event (context) play a crucial role in the
formation and retrieval of memories (memory contextualization). The inability
to use context information could lead to generalization of memories across
contexts, and predispose to pathological conditions, such as anxiety disorders
like PTSD. The interaction between the content of information (e.g. emotional
of fearful) and an individual*s state (e.g. stress) is known to influences
learning and memory processes, often in a time-dependent matter. Our hypothesis
is that the same applies for memory contextualization. More specifically we
expect that the ability to contextualize information will be hampered directly
after stress and enhanced during the late phases of the stress response. We
expect this effect to the strongest for information with increased levels of
arousal (i.e. emotional of fearful content).
Study objective
The primary objective is to establish, in healthy subjects, the time-dependent
effects of social stress on the tendency to generalize neural, emotional and
fearful memories to new contexts. The secondary objective is to assess whether
several neuroendocrinological, psychophysiological and self-report markers of
(perceived) anxiety and stress levels might predict memory performance
(contextualization and generalization) after social stress.
Study design
The study is designed as a singleblind randomized-controlled, small monocenter
study, with three experimental conditions.
Intervention
Trier Social Stress Test
Study burden and risks
Concerning the risk analysis, a negligible risk for participants is estimated.
The Trier Social Stress Test is often applied without any known lasting
disadvantageous effects. The mild electric shocks that participants will
receive during the FGT are not dangerous. The time spent in the laboratory is
limited to 6 hours and participants have sufficient time for breaks.
Heidelberglaan 100
Utrecht 3584 CX
NL
Heidelberglaan 100
Utrecht 3584 CX
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
Between 18 and 50 years of age.
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
past or present psychiatric or neurological condition
colour blindness
any somatic or endocrine disease (e.g., acute asthma)
taking any medication known to influence central nervous system or endocrine systems
lack of fluency in the Dutch language
speech impairments
any acute illness
fever
having a severe cold
Design
Recruitment
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
No registrations found.
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| CCMO | NL54311.041.15 |