NCT01223404

Nicotinic Modulation of the Default Network

Nicotinic Modulation of the Default Network of Resting Brain Function

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 21 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Maryland, Baltimore · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Many disorders where attentional problems are a hallmark, such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, display abnormal regulation of the so-called default network of resting brain function that maintains internally directed thought when the mind is free to wander. There is indication that nicotine may improve attention by aiding the deactivation of the default network, and this mechanism may be of therapeutic benefit for the above disease states. The current project aims at providing a proof of concept by demonstrating that nicotinic drugs modulate default network function. The nicotinic agonist nicotine is hypothesized to improve attention by facilitating the down-regulation of default network activity, and the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine is hypothesized to impair attention by impeding the down-regulation of default network activity during attentional task performance.

Detailed description

This study only enrolls healthy non-smokers. Participants perform attention tasks while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging on three separate days. Across the three days, three difference conditions are tested in a double-blind manner, in randomized order. In all test sessions, participants receive a skin patch and swallow a capsule. In one session, both are a placebo. In another, the patch is a low-dose nicotine patch, and the capsule is a placebo. In another session, the patch is a placebo and the capsule contains a low dose of mecamylamine.

Conditions

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Cognition
• Nicotine
• Mecamylamine

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Placebo	Participants are administered a placebo patch and a placebo capsule
DRUG	Nicotine	Participants are administered a nicotine patch (7 mg/24 hrs) and a placebo capsule
DRUG	Mecamylamine	Participants are administered a placebo patch and a capsule containing 7.5 mg of mecamylamine

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-10-01
• Primary completion: 2013-09-01
• Completion: 2013-09-01
• First posted: 2010-10-19
• Last updated: 2019-08-19
• Results posted: 2018-01-25

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States