NCT06908447

Cold Water and Decision-Making

Voluntary Cold-Water Immersion Effects on Value-Based Choice

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: German Institute of Human Nutrition · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The behavioral within-subject cross-over design study "CoVa" aims to investigate the effect of a short-term full-body cold-water immersion vs. warm-water immersion control on value-based choice, psychological well-being, and peripheral physiology.

Detailed description

This randomized within-subject cross-over design behavioral study in cognitive neuroscience will employ an acute peripheral physiological intervention, i.e., a 10-minute full-body cold-water (10-16°C) immersion vs. a control condition (10 min @ 30- 36°C water) on two visits separated by approx. 30 days. Forty eligible female and male participants will be subject to a head-out full-body cold-water immersion or a warm-water condition (control) on two visits. Participants will perform resting-state and task-based non-invasive electrophysiological recordings of the heart, pulse, respiration, skin conductance, and pupil, will undergo thermographic imaging, pre- and post-immersion blood sampling (4 time points), engage in two computer-based decision-making tasks (reinforcement learning task, risk decision-making task), a brief food choice task, and receive a battery of psychometric questionnaires. The visits are separated by approximately 30 days and do not differ in their timeline except for the primary intervention, i.e., cold vs warm-water immersion, and the medical screening on visit 1.

Conditions

• Behavior
• Stress
• Quality of Life
• Psychological Wellbeing

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Cold-water immersion	Single 10-minute acute full-body head-out single arm-out cold-water immersion at 10-16°C on the experimental day
BEHAVIORAL	Warm-water immersion (Control)	Single 10-minute acute full-body head-out single arm-out cold-water immersion at 30-36°C on the experimental day

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-08-28
• Primary completion: 2026-02-28
• Completion: 2026-02-28
• First posted: 2025-04-03
• Last updated: 2025-09-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany