Protocol Number: 01-M-0185

Title:

Effects of Arousal and Stress on Classical Conditioning

Number:

01-M-0185

Summary:

This study has several parts. One part will examine the influence of factors such as personality and past experience on reactions to unpleasant stimuli. Others will examine the effect of personality and emotional and attentional states on learning and memory.

When confronted with fearful or unpleasant events, people can develop fear of specific cues that were associated with these events as well as to the environmental context in which the events occurred via a process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been used to model anxiety disorders, but the relationship between stress and anxiety and conditioned responses remains unclear. This study will examine the relationship between cued conditioning and context conditioning . This study will also explore the acquisition and retention of different types of motor, emotional, and cognitive associative processes during various tasks that range from mildly arousing to stressful.

Sponsoring Institute:

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Recruitment Detail

Type: Participants currently recruited/enrolled

Gender: Male & Female

Referral Letter Required: Yes

Population Exclusion(s): Children

Eligibility Criteria:

INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Subjects will be healthy volunteers ages 18-65 recruited through advertisements in the local media.

Subjects will be free of current or past psychopathology and organic central nervous system disorders.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Any current ongoing medical illness; psychiatric (Axis I disorders) or neurological disorder (including seizure), current substance abuse, or current psychotropic medication are grounds for exclusion.

In addition, subjects will be excluded from CO(2) studies if they suffer from current or a history of cerebral aneurysm, hypertension, angina, asthma, or cardiovascular problems. Pregnancy will also be an exclusion factor.

Female participants in the stress/learning study will be excluded if they suffer from premenstrual syndrome or irregular menses.

Subjects participating in a shock experiment will be excluded if they have neurological symptoms of the wrist and arms (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome).

Special Instructions:

Currently Not Provided

Keywords:

Classical Conditioning

Fear Conditioning

Stress

Anxiety

Learning

Normal Volunteers

Adults

Recruitment Keyword(s):

Healthy Volunteer

Normal Control

Fear Conditioning

Condition(s):

Anxiety Disorder

Investigational Drug(s):

None

Investigational Device(s):

None

Intervention(s):

None

Supporting Site:

National Institute of Mental Health

Contact(s):

Patient Recruitment and Public Liaison Office
Building 61
10 Cloister Court
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4754
Toll Free: 1-800-411-1222
TTY: 301-594-9774 (local),1-866-411-1010 (toll free)
Fax: 301-480-9793

Electronic Mail:prpl@mail.cc.nih.gov

Citation(s):

Fear-potentiated startle conditioning to explicit and contextual cues in Gulf War veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder

Baseline and fear-potentiated startle in panic disorder patients

Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampus to cued and contextual fear conditioning

• Questions about participating in a study, please contact the Patient Recruitment and Public Liaison Office, CC.
• Technical questions regarding the Clinical Center web site, please contact the Department of Networks and Applications, CC.

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National Institutes of Health Clinical Center Bethesda, Maryland 20892. Last update: 09/16/2008