The Neural Mechanisms of Imaginal Extinction

NCT05168592 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2020-06930b
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 87
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Imaginal exposure is a widely used and effective psychological treatment technique in which patients are exposed to fearful stimuli and situations using mental imagery. This study examines imaginal extinction, an experimental analogue of imaginal exposure that allows the study of this treatment technique under controlled circumstances. During imaginal extinction, conditioned fear is diminished through repeated exposure to mental imagery of the feared (conditioned) stimulus. The neural underpinnings of imaginal extinction is not known, and hence, this study examines neural activations during imaginal extinction using psychophysiology and brain imaging.

Conditions

Fear of Spiders

Keywords

Threat conditioning; Extinction; Imaginal Extinction; Mental Imagery

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Blood oxygen level dependent contrast (BOLD-signal) during threat conditioning and imaginal extinction.

  BOLD-signal is assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

  Day 1

• Physiological arousal response during threat conditioning and imaginal extinction.

  Skin conductance responses are used as a measure of physiological arousal response (i.e. event-related rise in electrodermal activity to stimuli).

  Day 1

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Task-specific mental imagery vividness during imaginal extinction

  Day 1

• Ratings of subjective fear experienced during threat conditioning and imaginal extinction.

  Day 1

• Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T)

  One week after Day 1

• Vividness of visual imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)

  One week after Day 1

Study Arms (1)

Imaginal extinction

EXPERIMENTAL

Conditioned fear will be diminished using imaginal extinction.

Behavioral: Threat conditioning; Behavioral: Imaginal extinction

Interventions

Threat conditioning BEHAVIORAL

Day 1: The participant is repeatedly shown two stimulus (CS+,CS-), one at a time. CS+ is paired with an electric shock. CS- acts as a control stimulus. The stimuli consist of photos of two different objects. Stimuli will be counterbalanced between participants.

Imaginal extinction

Imaginal extinction BEHAVIORAL

Day 1: Participants are repeatedly instructed to produce mental imagery of the two stimuli used during threat conditioning. Imagery is prompted through different written instructions presented in pseudo-randomized order on a screen. No shocks will be delivered.

Imaginal extinction

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 60 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Willing and able to provide informed consent and complete study procedures
• Fear of spiders (due to data collection together with ID 2020-06930a)

You may not qualify if:

• Current psychiatric disorder other than spider phobia. Current use of psychotropic medication. Current neurological conditions. MRI-contraindications (i.e metal implants in skull).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Uppsala University: lead

Study Sites (1)

The Swedish 7T facility

Lund, 22242, Sweden

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Arachnophobia

Study Officials

• Thoma Ågren, PhD

  Uppsala University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 9, 2021
• First Posted: December 23, 2021
• Study Start: April 7, 2022
• Primary Completion: March 1, 2023
• Study Completion: March 1, 2023
• Last Updated: August 26, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP
• Time Frame: Data will be available from completion of analysis and publication, and onwards.
• Access Criteria: Anonymous behavioural and brain imaging data, training material, and Statistical Analysis plan will be made public on the project site on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/s54dz/)

Locations

SE (1)