Molecular Basis of Loss Aversion

Healthy Clinical Trial

Official title:

Molecular Basis of Loss Aversion

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06034158
• Other study ID #: 20230496
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 18, 2023
• Est. completion date: September 1, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: September 2023
• Source: Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the roles of dopamine and norepinephrine in decision making related to loss aversion in the healthy population. The main question it aims to answer is whether temporarily boosting dopamine activity or temporarily suppressing norepinephrine activity has an impact on processing of potential gains and losses in financial decision making, social decision making, transaction decision making and moral decision making. Accordingly, participants will complete four decision-making tasks, namely investment task, driving task, trading task, and die task, after taking madopar, propranolol or placebo. Participants' psychological traits and psychiatric symptoms will be assessed once they are enrolled before the first-session day.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 60
• Est. completion date: September 1, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: March 1, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 25 Years to 40 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age 25-40 years old (including boundary value).

2. Elementary school education or above, able to understand the research content.

3. Body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and electrocardiogram are all normal. Among them, the blood pressure range is 100-139/70-89 mmHg, and the heart rate range is 60-85 beats/min.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Vulnerable groups, including people with mental illness, cognitive impairment, critically ill subjects, minors, pregnant women, illiterates, etc.

2. Family history of genetic diseases.

3. Major physical diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, renal, endocrine, blood and other systemic diseases.

4. History of alcohol/drug dependence.

5. Lactating women.

6. The cardiopulmonary function test results are poor.

7. Have ever taken madopar or propranolol for medical use.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Healthy

Intervention

Drug:
• single-dose madopar, single-dose propranolol, and single-dose placebo by order
Participants will take madopar, propranolol, and placebo (orange juice) each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.
• single-dose madopar, single-dose placebo, and single-dose propranolol by order
Participants will take madopar, placebo(orange juice), and propranolol each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.
• single-dose propranolol, single-dose madopar, and single-dose placebo by order
Participants will take propranolol, madopar, and placebo(orange juice) each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.
• single-dose propranolol, single-dose placebo, and single-dose madopar by order
Participants will take propranolol, placebo(orange juice), and madopar each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.
• single-dose placebo, single-dose propranolol, and single-dose madopar by order
Participants will take placebo(orange juice), propranolol, and madopar each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.
• single-dose placebo, single-dose madopar, and single-dose propranolol by order
Participants will take placebo(orange juice), madopar, and propranolol each once in three separate sessions. The interval between every two sessions will be at least 3 days.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
China	Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital	Hangzhou	Zhejiang

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

China, 

References & Publications (1)

Sheng F, Ramakrishnan A, Seok D, Zhao WJ, Thelaus S, Cen P, Platt ML. Decomposing loss aversion from gaze allocation and pupil dilation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 May 26;117(21):11356-11363. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919670117. Epub 2020 May 8. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Choices to invest or not in the investment task	Participants decide whether or not to accept investment options that entail a 50/50 chance of winning some amount of money and losing some amount of money.	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Response times to invest or not in the investment task	Participants decide whether or not to accept investment options that entail a 50/50 chance of winning some amount of money and losing some amount of money.	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Choices to turn or not in the driving task	Participants decide whether or not to make turns during driving in order to sacrifice some number of person(s) to save some number of person(s) .	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Response times to turn or not in the driving task	Participants decide whether or not to make turns during driving in order to sacrifice some number of person(s) to save some number of person(s) .	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Choices to buy or sell in the trading task	Participants decide whether or not to buy or sell a product at certain prices.	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Response times to buy or sell in the trading task	Participants decide whether or not to buy or sell a product at certain prices.	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Primary	Reported outcomes in die task	Participants report the outcome for each throw of the die.	between 1-2 hours after taking the drugs or the placebo
Secondary	Affects	Participants' affects will be assessed using the Positive and Negative Affective Scale (PANAS).Scores can range from 10 to 50 for both the Positive and Negative Affect, with the lower scores representing lower levels of Positive/Negative Affect and higher scores representing higher levels of Positive/Negative Affect.	before and 1 hour after taking the drugs or the placebo