NCT03380260

Investigating Neural Processing of Social Stimuli

Investigating Neural Processing of Social Stimuli: Investigating a Neurobehavioral Mechanism of Paranoia

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 70 (actual)
• Sponsor: The University of Texas at Dallas · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The primary goal of the present study is to test whether neural activity in brain regions associated with processing threat and social stimuli may underlie paranoid thinking.

Detailed description

Paranoia is a prominent symptom of psychosis that occurs in several other diagnoses, as well as the general population, and that is associated with significant distress and impairment. Previous research suggests that increased baseline activity of the amygdala and related neural circuits may serve as a mechanism for paranoid ideation. This exploratory study will use a paranoia induction procedure in healthy individuals who vary in pre-existing levels of paranoid ideation to test whether increases in self-reported paranoia are accompanied by increases in resting cerebral blood flow (CBF), decreased stimulus-driven neural activity in social processing networks, and increased behavioral perceptions of untrustworthiness. Participants will be randomly assigned to participate in a paranoia induction procedure or a control condition and will then complete neuroimaging and behavioral assessments.

Conditions

• Healthy Adults

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Paranoia Induction	Behavioral procedure involving social exclusion and negative feedback to induce paranoia

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-06-01
• Primary completion: 2019-04-01
• Completion: 2019-04-01
• First posted: 2017-12-21
• Last updated: 2021-04-28

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States