An Attempt at Translating Novelty-enhanced Extinction of Context Conditioning From Rodents to Humans

NCT ID: NCT05150951

Last Updated: 2022-06-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 60 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-11-15
• Study Completion Date: 2022-05-01

Brief Summary

In rodents, novel exploration has been used to strengthen the consolidation of a variety of hippocampal-dependent learning tasks. To our knowledge, no attempt have been made to translate the effect of strengthening the memory of an extinction of a context conditioning memory. This study uses virtual reality for both context conditioning and novel exploration in an attempt at translating these findings from rodents to humans, thus, using novel exploration to strengthen an extinction memory. Threat responses are measured with skin conductance and startle responses. If this effect could be shown experimentally in humans, that experimental setup could become an important tool in understanding important memory processes of fear, such as reconsolidation and behavioral tagging.

Detailed Description

The study employs healthy participants and includes three experimental sessions, roughly 24 h apart. During the first session, participants undergo context conditioning in virtual reality where the CS+ and CS- are two different rooms. During the second session, half of the participants perform an exploration of a novel virtual environment, and the other half performs a visual attention task. About 60 min later, participants undergo extinction to the context conditioning performed in session 1, again in virtual reality. In session 3, remaining threat responses are measured through a reinstatement procedure, again in virtual reality.

Conditions

Healthy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Experimental group

Novel exploration is used before extinction in an attempt to strengthen the extinction consolidation.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Novel Exploration

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Exploration of a novel 3D-environment in virtual reality.

Threat conditioning

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 1. Threat conditioning to two different (CS+, CS-) virtual reality contexts (i.e rooms). One of these is paired with a mild electric shock. The context paired with the electric shock (CS+) is counterbalanced across participants. Participants are instructed that they may receive electrical shocks during the procedure.

Extinction

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 2. Participants are repeatedly exposed to the both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), but no shocks are delivered.

Reinstatement

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 3. Participants are again repeatedly exposed to both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), after a few shocks delivered in a neutral context.

Control group

Participants perform a control task (visual attention) instead of the novel exploration.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Threat conditioning

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 1. Threat conditioning to two different (CS+, CS-) virtual reality contexts (i.e rooms). One of these is paired with a mild electric shock. The context paired with the electric shock (CS+) is counterbalanced across participants. Participants are instructed that they may receive electrical shocks during the procedure.

Extinction

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 2. Participants are repeatedly exposed to the both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), but no shocks are delivered.

Reinstatement

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 3. Participants are again repeatedly exposed to both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), after a few shocks delivered in a neutral context.

Visual attention control task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Session 2. A visual attention task used as a control task instead of novel exploration.

Interventions

Novel Exploration

Exploration of a novel 3D-environment in virtual reality.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Threat conditioning

Session 1. Threat conditioning to two different (CS+, CS-) virtual reality contexts (i.e rooms). One of these is paired with a mild electric shock. The context paired with the electric shock (CS+) is counterbalanced across participants. Participants are instructed that they may receive electrical shocks during the procedure.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Extinction

Session 2. Participants are repeatedly exposed to the both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), but no shocks are delivered.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Reinstatement

Session 3. Participants are again repeatedly exposed to both contexts from session 1 (CS+, CS-), after a few shocks delivered in a neutral context.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Visual attention control task

Session 2. A visual attention task used as a control task instead of novel exploration.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Willing and able to provide informed consent and complete study procedures

Exclusion Criteria

• Current psychiatric disorder.
• Current use of psychotropic medication
• Current use of neurological conditions

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 50 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Uppsala University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Thomas Ågren, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Uppsala University

Locations

Uppsala University, deparmtent of Psychology

Uppsala, , Sweden

Countries

Sweden

References

Moncada D, Ballarini F, Viola H. Behavioral Tagging: A Translation of the Synaptic Tagging and Capture Hypothesis. Neural Plast. 2015;2015:650780. doi: 10.1155/2015/650780. Epub 2015 Aug 25.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 26380117 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

2021-03596

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id