NCT06240052

Use Electroencephalogram to Study Neural Dynamics of Fear Conditioning and Avoidance Learning Circuit in Humans

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 150 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine which event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs) are associated with fear conditioning, avoidance learning, and memory recall for fear and avoidance, where are the source generators of the observed scalp EEG activity, the impact of fear and avoidance learning on the decision to avoid or not to avoid conditioned stimuli , to examine the large-scale functional connectivity across distributed brain regions across experimental phases, and to examine whether spontaneous EEG data during resting-state correlate with the EEG measures during experimental tasks.

Conditions

• Neural Dynamics of the Acquisition and Retention of Fear Learning and Active Avoidance Learning

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Conditioning and active avoidance paradigm (CAAP)	On day 1 subjects will undergo image viewing, fear conditioning, and avoidance learning. Subjects will be instructed to passively view the images from 3 categories on the screen, with 2 of the 3 categories being paired with a mild shock to the subjects' foot. Then they will see a picture of a button on the screen together with all three categories. If they press the button, they may prevent the shock from occurring. Pressing the button for one of the conditioned categories will prevent the shock from happening. Pressing the button to the other conditioned cue will not prevent the shock .Pressing the button to the third category does nothing. On day 2, subjects will be given $5 and will be told that they can press a button to avoid a shock. The number of times the button was pressed will be counted and if it is less than the number by another randomly selected participant then the participant will get to keep the money.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-02-08
• Primary completion: 2026-12-30
• Completion: 2026-12-30
• First posted: 2024-02-02
• Last updated: 2025-12-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States