Altering High-risk Trajectories in Adolescent Anxiety Via Attention Bias Modification Training: Neural Predictors and Mechanisms (ABM Study)
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 终止
- 发起方
- 入组人数
- 15
- 试验地点
- 2
- 主要终点
- Change from baseline in parent-reported anxious symptoms at 3 weeks follow-up
研究概览
简要总结
During adolescence, youth undergo rapid developmental change and in some cases experience increases in worries and fearfulness, although the mechanisms that underlie this change are unclear. Previous studies indicate that heightened Attentional Bias (AB) toward threat-related cues may increase fearfulness, and it may be possible to change AB using a computerized, Attention Bias Modification task (ABM). This study will recruit healthy youth with elevated anxious symptoms to index attentional tendencies toward threat-related stimuli using cutting-edge techniques, and to test the effect of a computerized attention training task in altering attention to threatening cues. The investigators will also examine the role of ABM in changing youth's attention-related resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), a neural marker of at-rest cognition.
详细描述
Adolescence is a critical period for increases in anxious symptoms, potentially due to etiologically significant Attention Biases (AB) favoring threatening cues. However, the specific facets of AB that drive this vulnerability as well as their neurocognitive correlates are unclear, due in large part to the poor psychometric properties of the traditional assessment of AB in this field. By using both a standard behavioral task and a novel eye-tracking task, this study aims to unpack the nuanced facets of AB related to anxiety risks. Additionally, well-controlled Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) tasks designed to train attention away from threatening cues can be used to experimentally manipulate the causal mechanisms of interest, and to test whether ABM reduces symptoms and alters patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC, the intrinsic brain activity that occurs outside specific tasks) that characterize anxiety risks.
This study will recruit 60 11-13-year-old healthy adolescents with heightened anxious symptoms but without clinically significant anxiety disorders. They will be randomized to a six-session ABM training or a placebo task. Both before and after the training, the investigators will assess their anxious symptoms, AB, and rsFC. By examining the risk processes prior to the onset of clinically significant anxiety disorders, our work will make important new contributions to our understanding of how AB eventuates in anxiety and will have direct implications for early identification of youth at highest risk for anxiety disorders, and the targets that should be focused on in preventative efforts.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Basic Science
- 盲法
- Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
盲法说明
The randomized assignment procedure will be conducted solely by the PI. All other research staff and participants will be blind to the assigned condition throughout the course of the study. The PI will use a random number generator in Excel to assign a number 1-10 for each participant. The number will be given to the study coordinator, who notes the number in the participant's file. Participants will be assessed by the coordinator or other research staff. The research staff goes to each participant's home to conduct the ABM training protocol, where the number noted in this participant's file will be entered at the start of the training task to assign the participant to either the ABM task or the control task. The PI will not run the tasks. In communicating with participants, the terms baseline, outcome, and training will not be used.
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 11 Years 至 13 Years（Child）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •English-speaking 11-13-year-old youth without significant medical, psychological, cognitive, or language impairments.
排除标准
- •Adolescents with clinically significant anxiety disorders or conditions in conflict with MRI scanning (e.g., orthodontics) will be excluded.
结局指标
主要结局
Change from baseline in parent-reported anxious symptoms at 3 weeks follow-up
时间窗: 3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
Parent-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire. The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale. Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
Change from baseline in parent-reported anxious symptoms at 6 weeks follow-up
时间窗: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
Parent-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire. The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale. Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
Change from baseline in youth self-reported anxious symptoms at 6 weeks follow-up
时间窗: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
Youth self-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Youth Self Report questionnaire. The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale. Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
Change from baseline in youth self-reported anxious symptoms at 3 weeks follow-up
时间窗: 3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
Youth self-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Youth Self Report questionnaire. The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale. Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
次要结局
- Change from baseline in response-time-indexed Attentional Bias (AB) at 6 weeks follow-up(6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session))
- Change from baseline in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC)(6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session))
- Change from baseline in eye-movement-indexed Attentional Bias (AB) at 6 weeks follow-up(6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session))
研究者
Elizabeth Hayden
Professor
Western University, Canada