Neural Substrate of Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
- Enrollment
- 62
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- fMRI BOLD signal differences between heavy and light drinkers during reward and threat task.
Overview
Brief Summary
Background:
- People who are dependent on alcohol drink even when they know something bad might happen. Researchers want to learn more about why they do this.
Objectives:
- To study brain response when a person plays a game in different threat conditions.
Eligibility:
- Healthy right-handed adult heavy drinkers age 21 60
- Healthy right-handed adult light drinkers age 21 60
Design:
- Participants will be screened with medical history, physical exam, and blood and urine tests. They will have an EKG and psychiatric interview.
- Participants will have one or two clinic visits.
- Participants will be asked about their alcohol drinking.
- They will choose a snack and alcoholic beverage that they must drink in 5 minutes. After their breath alcohol content (BrAC) is zero, they will play a game in the MRI scanner.
- The scanner is a metal cylinder that takes pictures of the brain. Participants lie on a table that slides in and out of the cylinder. They will be in it for about 90 minutes, lying still for up to 20 minutes.
- During the MRI, participants will play a simple computer game to earn food or drink points under different threats of electric shock. Points can be exchanged for food or alcohol after the game. Sometimes, participants will receive a mild electric shock through a metal disk on the wrist. Electric shocks will only happen if the participant tries to earn a reward point.
- After the MRI, participants use their points for another drink and snack. They will stay at the clinic until their BrAC is low, usually within 3 hours. Participants cannot drive themselves home.
- Participants will have a follow-up phone call the next day.
Detailed Description
Objective
Continued drug seeking despite knowledge of adverse consequences is a hallmark of addiction. To model this behavior, we will refine the parameters of a modified Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task that will allow us to investigate neural substrates of approach-avoidance conflict resolution. We will then use this task to investigate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain activation during pursuit of reward in heavy and light drinkers.
Study Population: Healthy non-treatment-seeking heavy drinkers and healthy light drinkers aged 21 to 60.
Design: The study will require 1 to 2 visits. Subjects will play a modified MID task called Reward Incentive Delay with Shock (RIDS) to measure motivation to earn cue reward points in conditions that are signaled to be safe or associated with a threat. After playing the RIDS task subjects will be able to self-administer alcohol and/or food based on the reward points earned during the task.
Outcome measures: The outcome measures are differences in behavioral task performance and in blood oxygenation dependent level (BOLD) signal measured using standard fMRI techniques and analyzed using AFNI software.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Observational
- Observational Model
- Cohort
- Time Perspective
- Prospective
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 21 Years to 60 Years (Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Exclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
fMRI BOLD signal differences between heavy and light drinkers during reward and threat task.
Time Frame: Mainly the fMRI and behavioral data collected at the time of enrollment
fMRI and behavioral differences between light drinkers and heavy drinkers.
Secondary Outcomes
No secondary outcomes reported