Noradrenaline, Acetylcholine and Dynamic Learning in Healthy Humans
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Registration Number
- NCT03957174
- Lead Sponsor
- University of Oxford
- Brief Summary
The aim of this study is to characterize the role of central norepinephrine and acetylcholine on reward and emotion related information processing in healthy volunteers using behavioural tasks and pupillometry (with eye tracking equipment). The pharmacological compounds used in the study (reboxetine and rivastigmine) are used as tools to manipulate these sys...
- Detailed Description
Background: Previous research has shown that human learners are able to encode the probabilities of positive and negative outcomes in parallel, and adjust their learning behaviour to the information content of positive and negative outcomes (Pulcu and Browning 2017). In reinforcement learning tasks, the volatility (also known as unexpected uncertainty arisin...
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 107
- Male or female
- Age: 18 to 45 years
- Good physical and mental health
- Participant is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study
- Sufficient knowledge of English language to understand and complete study tasks
- Willingness to refrain from driving, cycling, or operating heavy machinery on the day of the study
- Current or past psychiatric disorder (e.g. depression, bipolar disorder etc.)
- BMI outside of range 187.5 and 2530
- Any severe medical condition not stabilized at the time of the experiment that, in the opinion of the study medic, would compromise the safety or conduct of the study including significant hypertension (diastolic pressure > 100mmHg) or bradycardia (pulse less than 50 bpm).
- Any history of seizures, glaucoma or pancreatitis
- Lactose intolerance
- Any current or past physical illness that has the potential to significantly affect mental functioning (e.g. epilepsy, hypothyroidism, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis etc.)
- Pregnant, or lactating woman
- Sexually active woman who does not use any medically accepted method of contraception
- Current or previous intake (last month) of any medication that has a significant potential to affect mental functioning (e.g. benzodiazepines, antidepressants, neuroleptics etc.)
- Any intake of recreational drugs in the last 3 months (e.g. marijuana, ecstasy etc.)
- Harmful alcohol use in the last 6 months (harmful alcohol use established based on self-reported work-related or social problems due to alcohol use or other's feedback to the participant that s/he should cut down)
- History of allergic reactions to relevant substances (reboxetine, rivastigmine)
- Previous participation in a study using the same or similar tasks
- In the researcher's or study medic's opinion participation in the study could be harmful or severely distressing to the participant (e.g. intolerance of side effects) or the participant is not able to follow instructions or complete study tasks
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Placebo Placebo oral tablet Single dose of placebo Rivastigmine Rivastigmine Single dose of 3mg Reboxetine Reboxetine Single dose of 4mg
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in learning rates 2 hours after dosing (NB outcome is the change from the baseline measure to this time point) Learning rates from negative and positive outcomes received in a reinforcement learning task
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Pupil size 2 hours after dosing (NB outcome is the change from the baseline measure to this time point) High temporal resolution pupil size measurement during a reinforcement learning task
Affective processing 2 hours after dose Response accuracy in the Facial Emotion Recognition Task (FERT).
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Dept of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
🇬🇧Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom