Emotional Response in Psychiatric and Control Participants

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this research is to understand how the emotions of people with different mental health concerns (e.g., people with schizophrenia, people with major depressive disorder) differ from individuals without mental health concerns. A large body of literature suggests that people with mental illnesses have emotional abnormalities compared to healthy individuals, but a number of these abnormalities are not well understood. For example, often people with schizophrenia report on questionnaires that they experience fewer pleasant emotions when talking with other people, but some evidence suggests these individuals report a similar amount of pleasant emotion when they are actually engaged in a pleasant activity. Thus, it is unclear the extent to which reports of emotional abnormalities extend to a more real-world setting. In the tasks in the current proposal, participants will engage in a series of tasks designed to assess their emotional functioning. These tasks involve viewing emotional stimuli on the computer, engaging in social interactions, and consuming small amounts of food. In all tasks, participants will make ratings of their experiences of pleasure (and displeasure). We will then compare the experiences of patient groups to those of healthy individuals to test how emotional ratings might differ across these tasks.

Official Title
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Emotional Response in Psychiatric and Control Participants

Conditions
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Schizophrenia, Emotions

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: social interaction
* Behavioral: food consumption


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: For control participants, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have not been clinically diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. For psychiatric patients, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have been clinically diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or depression with no recent hospitalization or changes in your psychiatric medications. Exclusion Criteria: For control participants, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months. You are not eligible to participate if you have a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness. For psychiatric patients, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have had major changes to your psychotropic medications within the last two months, have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months, a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, or a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: social interaction<br>Participants will engage in a social interaction with another person | Behavioral: social interaction<br>* Participants will engage in a social interaction with another person<br>|
| Experimental: food consumption<br>Participants will be offered food stuffs to eat/drink | Behavioral: food consumption<br>* Participants will be offered food stuffs to eat/drink<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Social Anhedonia Scale | measures social anhedonia | 1 day | 
| Physical Anhedonia Scale | measures physical anhedonia | 1 day | 
| EEG activity | physiological parameter | 1 day | 
| Verbal behavioral rating | how many words are spoken throughout the task | 1 day | 
| Non-verbal behavioral rating | how many gestures are made throughout the task | 1 day | 
| International Personality Item Pool questionnaires | measure of personality | 1 day | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Following Affective States test | questionnaire re: how much participants follow or ignore their emotions | 1 day | 
| AMNART | measure of verbal IQ | 1 day | 
| MMSE | measure of mental status | 1 day |