Effects of Propranolol (vs. Placebo) on Information Processing During Presentation of Emotionally Arousing Pictures

Summary

The main objective of the present study is to combine two lines of research, investigating the interaction between emotional processing and memory performance (on both behavioral and electrophysiological levels) and its modulation by ß-blockade.

Concerning pharmacological manipulations with ß-blockers, there are no studies, which investigated the effects of propranolol on electrophysiological (ERPs) and behavioral measures of recognition memory along with their codependence on individual variations of adrenergic receptors' polymorphisms. Till now, also the findings about genetic influences of ADRB1 and ADRB2 on recognition memory for emotional contents are lacking.

Therefore, the current investigation has been designed to replicate the former results which revealed reduced ERP correlates of recognition memory for emotional pictures due to administration of ß-blocker propranolol. Furthermore investigators goal is to test, whether there are any differences between carriers of genetic variants of the ADRB1 and ADRB2 in memory performance and/or changes in event-related potentials and in propranolol influences on the above mentioned processes.

In conclusion, investigators hypothesize: (1) a memory advantage of emotionally arousing stimuli over emotionally neutral pictures; (2) more pronounced ERP components (EPN, LPP, old-new effect) associated with encoding and memory for emotional stimuli; (3) a reduction of electrocortical correlates of emotional recognition memory (old-new effect) caused by propranolol; (4) a potential impact of genetic variants of the ADRB1 and ADRB2 on the emotional information processing and memory formation alone, and on the propranolol modulation of those processes.

Furthermore, investigators hypothesize additional pharmacodynamic effects of propranolol such as influence on skin- conductance, pulse waves, burdening heart frequency, pulmonary function and metabolomics, which might depend on the ADRB1 and ADRB2 genotype.

Conditions

• Emotions

Interventions

DRUG

propranololhydrochloride

oral administration of one capsule Propanolol-CT 80 mg Filmtabletten (propranololhydrochloride, film-coated tablet encapsulated, 80 mg, single dose) together with 240 ml tap water and blood sampling at time points blank, 15, 30, 45 min, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 h of study days 1 and 3 and urine sampling for 24 h at study days 1 and 3 with subsequent measuring of propranolol and its clinically relevant metabolites

DRUG

placebo

oral administration of one placebo capsule together with 240 ml tap water and blood sampling at time points blank, 15, 30, 45 min, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 h of study days 1 and 3 and urine sampling for 24 h at study days 1 and 3

DEVICE

Net Station® System and compatible Geodesic Sensor Nets®

Electrocortical activity will be assessed by continuous EEG recording using Net Station® System and compatible Geodesic Sensor Nets® (Electrical Geodesics Incorporated, Eugene, OR, USA), measured at days 1, 3 and 10 of the study. Event related potentials at encoding (late positive potential, LPP) and at retrieval (ERP memory old/new effect) will be computed off-line after acquisition of the data.

DEVICE

VITAPORT

Measurement of the skin conductance by VITAPORT (Vitaport EDV Systeme GmbH, Erftstadt, Germany) on study days 1 and 3 at the time points before administration of the study medication, during the psychophysiological measurement and at 4 h. Furthermore, the skin conductance responses will be measured on day 10 during the psychophysiological measurement.

DEVICE

ergoselect II 100/200

Performance of an ergometry by ergoselect II 100/200 (ergoline GmbH, Bitz, Germany) on study days 1 and 3 at 120 min. The burden will be the same wattage over 4 min, that corresponds to that of reaching 80% of the maximal heart frequency in the prestudy examination.

DEVICE

SpiroScout

Performance of a spirometry (SpiroScout, Ganshorn Medizin Electronic GmbH, Niederlauer, Germany) with measuring of the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) on study days 1 and 3 before administration of the study medication and at 120 min.

DEVICE

Mobil-O-Graph® PWA

Measurement of pulse waves by Mobil-O-Graph® PWA (I.E.M., Stollberg, Germany) on study days 1 and 3 at the time points -10 min, 20, 40, 60, 80, 120 min, 3, 5, 7, 11 h.

PROCEDURE

Saliva collection

Saliva collection will be performed on study days 1 and 3 at time points -10 min, 80 min, 120 min with subsequent measuring of the concentration of α -amylase

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Medicine Greifswald

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Werner Siegmund, Prof · Department of Clinical Pharmacology

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

35 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-10-31

Primary Completion

2014-02-28

Completion

2015-01-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations