Using the Musical Track From GC-MRT as a Treatment Booster in Stressful Situations

NCT ID: NCT05159037

Last Updated: 2022-06-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 60 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-11-07
• Study Completion Date: 2022-06-20

Brief Summary

The study examines whether musical tracks played during gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) for social anxiety could later be used as a booster to reduce anxiety before a stressful situation. To this end, highly socially anxious participants will undergo 4 GC-MRT sessions designed to train participants' attention away from threat and towards neutral social stimuli. Subsequently, participants will be asked to perform a socially stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during the GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

Detailed Description

Gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) is designed to modify threat-related attention biases through operational conditioning between beloved music and gaze patterns favoring neutral stimuli over threat-related stimuli. GC-MRT has shown efficacy in reducing social anxiety symptoms. The current study is designed to explore whether the musical tracks played during the GC-MRT conditioning could be later used as a treatment booster to reduce anxiety in a socially stressful situation. To this end, 60 high socially anxious participants will undergo four GC-MRT sessions and then will be asked to perform a stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants (randomly determined) will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that the listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

Conditions

Social Anxiety

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Active GC-MRT Booster

Following four sessions of Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy training participants' attention away from threats and towards neutral stimuli, participants will listen to a musical track they will have been trained with prior to a stressful speech task.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Feedback according to participants' viewing patterns, in order to modify their attention.

Music Booster

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants listen to a musical track they ranked as highly liked before a stressful situation

Control Booster

Following four sessions of Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy training participants' attention away from threats and towards neutral stimuli, participants will listen to a musical track they will not have been trained with but ranked as highly liked prior to a stressful speech task.

Group Type: PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Feedback according to participants' viewing patterns, in order to modify their attention.

Music Booster

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants listen to a musical track they ranked as highly liked before a stressful situation

Interventions

Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy

Feedback according to participants' viewing patterns, in order to modify their attention.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Music Booster

Participants listen to a musical track they ranked as highly liked before a stressful situation

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• a signed consent form
• an age of 18 years or above
• a score greater than 60 on LSAS

Exclusion Criteria

• a self-reported history of neurological or psychiatric illness

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Tel Aviv University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Yair Bar-Haim

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Yair Bar-Haim, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Tel Aviv University

Locations

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv, , Israel

Countries

Israel

Provided Documents

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

TAUgcMRTbooster

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id