The Association Between the Stress Hormone Cortisol and Decision-making

NCT07702747 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2021-2508
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 116
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to learn how acute psychosocial stress influences decision-making in healthy young adults. It will also examine whether cortisol reactivity, a biological stress response, changes the influence of physiological emotional signals on decision-making (i.e., the gut feeling indicating risks). The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. 1.Does exposure to an acute psychosocial stressor affect the development of physiological emotional signals during decision-making?
2. 2.Does cortisol reactivity moderate the relationship between physiological emotional signals and decision-making?
3. 3.Are there sex differences in these relationships?
4. 4.Be randomly assigned to either a psychosocial stress condition or a control condition.
5. 5.Complete a gambling decision-making task following the experimental manipulation.
6. 6.Provide multiple saliva samples and subjective stress ratings throughout the session to assess stress reactivity.
7. 7.Undergo continuous electrodermal activity recording during the decision-making task to measure physiological emotional signals.

Conditions

Healthy Young Adults

Keywords

Decision-making; Stress

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Decision-making as assessed by the Iowa Gambling Task (probability of drawing from the risky decks vs safe decks)

  Decision-making was assessed using the Iowa Gambling Task. In this task, participants need to draw 100 cards among 4 decks offering different win-loss contingencies. Some card decks are risky (large gains and losses), whereas some are safe (small gains and losses). The dependent variable was a binary variable indicating whether the participant drew a card from the risky (coded as 1) or the safe decks (coded as 0).

  Immediately after completing the experimental condition (Stress or control condition)

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Difference in cortisol levels between the two conditions.

  Baseline (just before the experimental condition is conducted), 10, 20, 50, 60, 70 minutes after the beginning of the experimental condition.

Study Arms (2)

Stress condition

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants completed a slightly modified version of the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), a validated psychosocial stress induction protocol. The protocol involved a 10-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute test phase: a 5-minute mock job interview and a 5-minute surprise mental arithmetic task. During the test phase, participants stood in front of a one-way mirror ("Panel-out" version) and were told they were being observed by behavioral analysts and recorded via camera, although no recording took place and the analysts were lab confederates.

Other: Trier Social Stress Test

Control condition

NO INTERVENTION

In the control condition, participants read magazines for an equivalent period of time to the Stress condition.

Interventions

Trier Social Stress Test OTHER

Participants completed a slightly modified version of the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), a validated psychosocial stress induction protocol. The protocol involved a 10-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute test phase: a 5-minute mock job interview and a 5-minute surprise mental arithmetic task. During the test phase, participants stood in front of a one-way mirror ("Panel-out" version) and were told they were being observed by behavioral analysts and recorded via camera, although no recording took place and the analysts were lab confederates.

Stress condition

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 35 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Adult aged 18-35 years old.

You may not qualify if:

• Current or past psychiatric/neurodevelopmental disorders
• Physical illness
• Medication use (except hormonal contraception)
• Alcohol consumption exceeding Health Canada guidelines (\>10 drinks/week for women, \>15 for men)
• Smoking more than 7 cigarettes/day.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Marie-France Marin: lead

Study Sites (1)

Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal

Montreal, Quebec, H1N3M5, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Psychological Tests

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Core researcher

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 1, 2026
• First Posted: July 14, 2026
• Study Start: September 13, 2021
• Primary Completion: November 7, 2024
• Study Completion: November 7, 2024
• Last Updated: July 14, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Beginning at the publication of the results with no end date.
• Access Criteria: The IPD and supporting information will be freely accessible to the public on the OSF project associated with the study.

Locations

CA (1)