Health TrialsbyHealthPanel

Behavioral and Neural Representations of Subjective Effort Cost

ConditionFatigue
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-35
SponsorHugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

About this trial

The goal of this proposal is to understand the common and distinct behavioral and neural representations of subjective effort valuation, and how these representations are influenced by fatigue and changes in motivation. It is hypothesized that the brain will use overlapping and distinct neural circuits to represent cognitive and physical effort value, and that fatigue and enhanced motivation will influence the subjective value of effort.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Right-handed

Age between 18 and 35 years old - Male or female

Any ethnicity

Disqualifiers

Neurological problems such as stroke, head injury, epilepsy, seizures, brain tumors, brain surgery, Parkinson's Disease (self- report)

Diagnosed history of severe psychiatric disease such as depression, schizophrenia (self-report)

Metal in the head or eyes

If they are pregnant or suspect that you may be pregnant

Trial design

Design model

Single group

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Cognitive Fatigue

    Behavioral

    Participants will perform a cognitively demanding task (spatial attention task), repeatedly, to induce cognitive fatigue.

  • Physical Fatigue

    Behavioral

    Participants will perform a physically demanding task (grip force exertion task), repeatedly, to induce cognitive fatigue.

  • Rewarding Stimuli

    Behavioral

    Reward-associated stimuli will be used to study how reward-induced changes in motivational state influence effort choices.

Treatment groups

185 Participants
are divided into 3 treatment groups
Group A: Cognitive FatigueExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Physical FatigueExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group C: Rewarding StimuliExperimental treatment 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Mean of cognitive subjective effort parameters (from behavioral choice data)

Choice data will be fit to a model of the form u(x) = x\^rho. The parameter rho is indicative of individuals' subjective preferences for effort. We will test if participants cognitive subjective effort parameters will be significantly different than zero. Effort levels will be expressed as a percentage of each individual's maximum exertion capacity. This will ensure that comparisons can be made between participants.

Time frame
1 day
2

Differences between cognitive subjective effort parameters before and after fatigue (from behavioral choice data)

Choice data will be fit to a model of the form u(x) = x\^rho. The parameter rho is indicative of individuals' subjective preferences for effort. We will test if participants cognitive subjective effort parameters will be significantly different when comparing parameters extracted from pre-fatigue and post-fatigue choices. Effort levels will be expressed as a percentage of each individual's maximum exertion capacity. This will ensure that comparisons can be made between participants.

Time frame
1 day
3

Mean of physical subjective effort parameters (from behavioral choice data)

Choice data will be fit to a model of the form u(x) = x\^rho. The parameter rho is indicative of individuals' subjective preferences for effort. We will test if participants physical subjective effort parameters will be significantly different than zero. Effort levels will be expressed as a percentage of each individual's maximum exertion capacity. This will ensure that comparisons can be made between participants.

Time frame
1 days
4

Differences between physical subjective effort parameters before and after fatigue (from behavioral choice data)

Choice data will be fit to a model of the form u(x) = x\^rho. The parameter rho is indicative of individuals' subjective preferences for effort. We will test if participants physical subjective effort parameters will be significantly different when comparing parameters extracted from pre-fatigue and post-fatigue choices. Effort levels will be expressed as a percentage of each individual's maximum exertion capacity. This will ensure that comparisons can be made between participants.

Time frame
1 day

Secondary outcomes

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Lead sponsor

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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