NCT05595434

Reality-monitoring & Stress

Study of Reality-monitoring Process and Influence of Stress Using an Electrophysiological Approach

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Hôpital le Vinatier · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 30 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Reality-monitoring is a crucial cognitive process in daily life to remember the source of an information. Deficits of reality-monitoring have been shown into the continuum of schizophrenia, suggesting a preexisting alteration in population at-risk for psychosis that will be exacerbated during psychotic transition. It is admitted that stress plays a crucial role in the psychotic transition and can alter cognitive performances. However, less is known about the effects of stress on reality-monitoring, even though this process appears to be central in psychotic disorders. The aim of this project is to investigate the effect of stress on reality-monitoring, both on behavioral and neurophysiological aspects

Detailed description

Forty healthy subjects will be included in the study. Participants will be subject to a standardized stress protocol, half of them receiving an active stress and the other half receiving a placebo. All participants will also complete a reality-monitoring task, electrophysiological (EEG) recordings as well as socio-demographic and psychometric evaluations

Conditions

• Healthy Participants

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Acute Maastricht Stress Test (MAST), active condition.	The MAST is a standardized stress protocol combining a 5 min preparation phase and 10 min acute stress phase. The last phase is composed by an alternation of physical and psychosocial stressors. In the active condition, participants have to switch between immersion of the hand into cold water and complex mental arithmetic operations.
PROCEDURE	Acute Maastricht Stress Test (MAST), placebo condition	The MAST is a standardized stress protocol combining a 5 min preparation phase and 10 min acute stress phase. The last phase is composed by an alternation of physical and psychosocial stressors. In the placebo condition, participants have to switch between immersion of the hand into tempered water and simple mental arithmetic counts.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-04-25
• Primary completion: 2025-10-25
• Completion: 2025-11-16
• First posted: 2022-10-27
• Last updated: 2025-07-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France