NCT05795179

Stress & Self-Control Costs

Neural and Affective Mechanisms Underlying Prospective Self-control Costs

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 300 (estimated)
• Sponsor: NYU Langone Health · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Self-control failures are a universal challenge for healthy and clinical populations. Recent work suggests these failures may arise from excessive cognitive costs associated with exercising self-control, yet the mechanisms underlying these costs are unknown. To address this, the investigators will use a validated decision-making task that measures how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to restrict access to tempting rewards that may lead to self-control failures. The investigators will examine these costs to identify their cognitive, neural and affective mechanisms. First, the investigators will identify the cognitive and computational mechanism that gives rise to self-control costs. Second, the investigators will characterize the neural correlates of self-control costs and identify neural mediators and connectivity patterns stemming from these costs. Finally, the investigators will examine how different classes of stressors (physical, social, or lifetime stress) shape the behavioral and neural representations of self-control costs.

Conditions

• Self-Control

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Cold-Pressor Task (CPT)	CPT is a physiological stress task in which participants continuously submerge their hand and forearm in ice-water (0-4°C) for 3 minutes.
BEHAVIORAL	Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)	The TSST is a psychosocial stressor that requires participants perform a short speech and solve math problems in front of 2 evaluative judges.
BEHAVIORAL	Modified Non-Stress CPT	The modified non-stress CPT involves participants continuously submerging their hand and forearm in warm water for 3 minutes.
BEHAVIORAL	Modified Non-Stress TSST	For the modified non-stress TSST, participants are asked to prepare for a speech that they will practice alone to themselves and complete math problems alone on a piece of scrap paper.
DEVICE	Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)	Participants will complete the self-control task in the fMRI scanner.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-10-01
• Primary completion: 2027-12-01
• Completion: 2028-04-01
• First posted: 2023-04-03
• Last updated: 2026-03-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States