Clinical trial NCT05159037: Using the Musical Track From GC-MRT as a Treatment Booster in Stressful Situations
Official title: Using the Musical Track From Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy as a Treatment Booster in Stressful Situations Among Highly Socially Anxious Participants
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Social Anxiety
Lead sponsor: Tel Aviv University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-12-15
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The study examines whether musical tracks played during gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) for social anxiety could later be used as a booster to reduce anxiety before a stressful situation. To this end, highly socially anxious participants will undergo 4 GC-MRT sessions designed to train participants' attention away from threat and towards neutral social stimuli. Subsequently, participants will be asked to perform a socially stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during the GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

Detailed description: Gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) is designed to modify threat-related attention biases through operational conditioning between beloved music and gaze patterns favoring neutral stimuli over threat-related stimuli. GC-MRT has shown efficacy in reducing social anxiety symptoms. The current study is designed to explore whether the musical tracks played during the GC-MRT conditioning could be later used as a treatment booster to reduce anxiety in a socially stressful situation. To this end, 60 high socially anxious participants will undergo four GC-MRT sessions and then will be asked to perform a stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants (randomly determined) will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that the listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* a signed consent form
* an age of 18 years or above
* a score greater than 60 on LSAS

Exclusion Criteria:

* a self-reported history of neurological or psychiatric illness

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change from baseline - the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale - Self Reported Version
timeFrame: 2 days before intervention, 4-10 days after intervention completion
measure: Change from baseline - the Visual Analogue Scale - Anxiety
timeFrame: 4-10 days after intervention completion (baseline of the speech session, after introducing the speech task, after listening to a musical track, after preparation to the speech,after the speech is over).
Secondary outcomes:
measure: PSPS (Public Speaking Performance Scale)
timeFrame: 4-10 days after intervention completion (During speech task)
Other outcomes:
measure: Change from baseline - viewing patterns on threat-neutral face matrices
timeFrame: At the first day of intervention, 4-10 days after intervention completion
Locations:
city: Tel Aviv
country: Israel
facility: Tel Aviv University
Study officials:
affiliation: Tel Aviv University
name: Yair Bar-Haim, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: