Effects of Oxytocin on Reinforcement Learning

Learning Disabilities Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Reward Sensitivity and Performance Monitoring During Reinforcement Learning: an ERP Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03846271
• Other study ID #: UESTC-neuSCAN-61
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 4, 2018
• Est. completion date: July 31, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: February 2019
• Source: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
• Contact: Zhuang Qian, MD
• Phone: 13086663679
• Email: zq19910362[@]126.com
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The main aim of the study is to investigate whether intranasal oxytocin (24IU) influences reward sensitivity and performance monitoring during reinforcement learning.

Description:

A double-blind, within-subject, placebo-controlled pharmacological EEG design will be employed. A total of 35 healthy male subjects will be recruited which will receive either intranasal placebo or oxytocin (24IU) on two separate study days (order counter-balanced, washout period at least 2 weeks). 45 minutes after treatment subjects will undergo a probabilistic feedback reinforcement learning paradigm with concurrent EEG acquisition. During the paradigm subjects will learn the reward probabilities of two different visual stimuli from probabilistic feedback provided by social stimuli (positive, negative emoticon). The paradigm includes an initial acquisition phase and a subsequent test phase.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: July 31, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: March 31, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Male
• Age group: 18 Years to 30 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age between 18-30

• Male sex

• Right handedness

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of brain injury

• Current or history of psychiatric, neurological or internist disorder

• Current or regular use of medication, psychotropic substances, including nicotine

• Contraindications for Oxytocin

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Learning Disabilities
• Learning Disorders

Intervention

Drug:
• intranasal oxytocin
24 IU of oxytocin nasal spray will be applied to each subject.
• intranasal placebo
an identical amount of placebo nasal spray will be applied to each subject.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
China	University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC)	Chengdu	Sichuan

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Country where clinical trial is conducted

China, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Neural index: Event-related potential: Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) during acquisition phase	Feedback Related Negativity (FRN): a negative ERP component evoked by negative feedback relative to positive feedback during the acquisition phase will be compared between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Primary	Neural index: Event-related potential: Error Related Negativity (ERN) during the test phase	Error Related Negativity (ERN): a negative ERP component evoked by incorrect responses relative to correct responses during the test phase will be compared between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Secondary	Behavioral index: Response accuracy to superior stimuli during the acquisition phase	Correct responses are defined as choices of the stimulus associated with higher probability positive feedback during the acquisition phase. Effects of treatment will be analyzed by comparing the performance between the two treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Secondary	Behavioral index: Response accuracy to stimuli associated with highest probability positive feedback during the test phase	Correct responses are defined as choices of the stimulus associated with highest probability positive feedback as learned in the acquisition phase. Effects of treatment will be analyzed by comparing the performance between the two treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Secondary	Response accuracy avoiding stimuli associated with highest probability negative feedback in the test phase.	Correct responses are defined as avoidance choices of stimuli associated with highest probability negative feedback as learned in the acquisition phase. Effects of treatment will be analyzed by comparing the performance between the two treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Secondary	Response accuracy in response to superior stimuli associated with relative higher probability positive feedback in the test phase.	Correct responses are defined as choices of the stimulus associated with higher probability positive feedback. Note that stimuli pairs in this measurement are all associated with positive feedback. Effects of treatment will be analyzed by comparing the performance between the two treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration
Secondary	Response accuracy avoiding stimuli associated with higher probability negative feedback in the test phase.	Correct responses are defined as avoidance choices of stimuli associated with higher probability negative feedback. Note that stimuli pairs in this measurement are all associated with negative feedback. Effects of treatment will be analyzed by comparing the performance between the two treatment conditions.	45-105 minutes after treatment administration