Stress & Self-Control Costs

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Self-Control

• Registration Number: NCT05795179
• Lead Sponsor: NYU Langone Health

Brief Summary

Self-control failures are a universal challenge for healthy and clinical populations. Recent work suggests these failures may arise from excessive cognitive costs associated with exercising self-control, yet the mechanisms underlying these costs are unknown. To address this, the investigators will use a validated decision-making task that measures how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to restrict access to tempting rewards that may lead to self-control failures. The investigators will examine these costs to identify their cognitive, neural and affective mechanisms. First, the investigators will identify the cognitive and computational mechanism that gives rise to self-control costs. Second, the investigators will characterize the neural correlates of self-control costs and identify neural mediators and connectivity patterns stemming from these costs. Finally, the investigators will examine how different classes of stressors (physical, social, or lifetime stress) shape the behavioral and neural representations of self-control costs.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2023-03-21
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-03-21
• Study First Posted: 2023-04-03
• Study Start: 2024-10-01
• Status Verified: 2025-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-14
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-15
• Primary Completion: 2027-12-01
• Study Completion: 2028-04-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 300

Inclusion Criteria

• 18-70 years of age, able to speak, read, and write fluently in English
• be willing and able to follow study procedures and provide informed consent.
• Must additionally confirm they are on a diet to maintain/lose weight and are implementing/maintaining dietary changes.

Exclusion Criteria

• History of or medication for neurologic or psychiatric disease
• High-blood pressure or heart condition
• Diabetes, food allergies, metabolic disorders or history of eating disorder
• Use of corticosteroids or beta-blockers
• Metallic implants or devices contraindicating magnetic resonance imaging.
• Pregnancy is considered an exclusion criteria due to all stress and scanning procedures, thus pregnant participants will not be permitted to participate in the study.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Average Self-Control Cost	Day 1	The self-control cost is the amount that a participant would be willing to pay to avoid temptation. This will be tested in a self-control task in which participants are shown an images of snack food and report how much they would be willing to avoid the different food items.
Change in fMRI BOLD Signal During Self-Control Decisions	Day 1 (Up to 1.5 Hours)	Functional MRI (fMRI) data will be analyzed to measure changes in blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC), Frontopolar Cortex (FPC) and Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) regions of interest as participants make self-control cost decisions during the self-control activity.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

NYU Langone Health; 🇺🇸 New York, New York, United States