Craving & Decision-Making

Part of paid clinical trials in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Sponsor
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Study ID
NCT06440577
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Decision Making

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing) — BEHAVIORAL
    Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of neutral everyday objects (e.g., tools, dirt) and their use (construction, gardening).
  • Audio-visual stimuli (Drug) — BEHAVIORAL
    Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of drug paraphernalia (e.g., syringe, tourniquet, heroin) and preparation.
  • Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) — BEHAVIORAL
    Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping an everyday object (e.g., box of crayons) and taking out its contents.
  • Audio-visual stimuli (Food) — BEHAVIORAL
    Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping a snack (e.g., chocolate bar, bag of chips) and taking out its contents.

Study Details

Craving is the strong desire for something, such as for substances in drug addiction and food or other activities in everyday life. Recent work suggests craving can influence how people make decisions and assign value to choice options available to them, yet the neural mechanisms underlying these interactions between craving and valuation remain unknown. To address this, this study uses cognitive decision-making tasks that measure how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to have everyday consumer items or snack foods when they crave something specific (opioids or a specific snack, respectively). First, the study will identify the neural mechanisms for how drug craving (craving for opioids) interacts with valuation for consumer items that have associations with drug use or not in people receiving treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). This will be evaluated in the activity patterns and interactions among brain regions involved in craving and value assignment during decision-making. Then, the study will examine for parallel mechanisms for how food craving (craving for a specific snack) interacts with valuation for snack food items that have similar features to the craved snack or not in people receiving treatment for OUD and non-psychiatric community control participants.

Key Dates

Start date
Jun 18, 2024
Status verified
Jun 2026
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2027
Completion
Dec 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
160 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE

Arms

  • Experimental: Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task
    Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for everyday consumer items that have associations with drug use or not. Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and drug craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing) and Audio-visual stimuli (Drug).
  • Experimental: Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task
    Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment and control participants from the community will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for snack food items that vary in their features (savory, sweet, etc.). Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and food craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) and Audio-visual stimuli (Food).

Primary Outcome Measure

Willingness-to-pay [ Time Frame: during the task ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyPiscatawayNew Jersey08854
Anna Konova, PhD

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