Clinical trial NCT05150951: An Attempt at Translating Novelty-enhanced Extinction of Context Conditioning From Rodents to Humans
Official title: An Attempt at Translating Novelty-enhanced Extinction of Context Conditioning From Rodents to Humans
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy
Keywords: Threat conditioning
Virtual reality
Extinction
Behavioral tagging
Lead sponsor: Uppsala University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-12-09
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 50
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: In rodents, novel exploration has been used to strengthen the consolidation of a variety of hippocampal-dependent learning tasks. To our knowledge, no attempt have been made to translate the effect of strengthening the memory of an extinction of a context conditioning memory. This study uses virtual reality for both context conditioning and novel exploration in an attempt at translating these findings from rodents to humans, thus, using novel exploration to strengthen an extinction memory. Threat responses are measured with skin conductance and startle responses. If this effect could be shown experimentally in humans, that experimental setup could become an important tool in understanding important memory processes of fear, such as reconsolidation and behavioral tagging.

Detailed description: The study employs healthy participants and includes three experimental sessions, roughly 24 h apart. During the first session, participants undergo context conditioning in virtual reality where the CS+ and CS- are two different rooms. During the second session, half of the participants perform an exploration of a novel virtual environment, and the other half performs a visual attention task. About 60 min later, participants undergo extinction to the context conditioning performed in session 1, again in virtual reality. In session 3, remaining threat responses are measured through a reinstatement procedure, again in virtual reality.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Willing and able to provide informed consent and complete study procedures

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current psychiatric disorder.
* Current use of psychotropic medication
* Current use of neurological conditions

Primary outcomes:
measure: Physiological arousal response during reinstatement.
timeFrame: Day 3
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Physiological arousal response during extinction
timeFrame: Day 2
measure: Physiological arousal response during threat conditioning
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Subjective fear ratings
timeFrame: Day 1, 2 & 3.
measure: Subjective discomfort ratings
timeFrame: Day 1, 2 & 3
Other outcomes:
measure: Navigation success
timeFrame: Day 2
measure: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T)
timeFrame: Day 2
measure: Generalized anxiety disorder 7 (GAD-7)
timeFrame: Day 2
measure: Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9)
timeFrame: Day 2
Locations:
city: Uppsala
country: Sweden
facility: Uppsala University, deparmtent of Psychology
Study officials:
affiliation: Uppsala University
name: Thomas Ågren, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Moncada D, Ballarini F, Viola H. Behavioral Tagging: A Translation of the Synaptic Tagging and Capture Hypothesis. Neural Plast. 2015;2015:650780. doi: 10.1155/2015/650780. Epub 2015 Aug 25.