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: Active Accrual Of New Subjects

Gender: Male & Female

Referral Letter Required: Yes

Population Exclusion(s): Children

Eligibility Criteria:

INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Healthy volunteers ages 18-65.

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

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

IQ less than than 70;

Ongoing medical illness;

Psychiatric or neurological disorder (including seizure);

Present substance abuse;

Current psychotropic medication;

Impaired hearing.

Special Instructions: Currently Not Provided

Keywords:

Classical Conditioning

Fear Conditioning

Stress

Anxiety

Learning

Normal Volunteers

Adults

Recruitment Keywords:

Healthy Volunteer

Normal Control

Fear Conditioning

Conditions:

Anxiety Disorder

Investigational Drug(s):

None

Investigational Device(s):

None

Contacts:

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

Citations:

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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Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center (CC)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Bethesda, Maryland 20892. Last update: 10/19/2004