MedTrace Logo

Using Neuroeconomics to Characterize State-Based Increases and Decreases in Alcohol Value

NCT04067765 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 72

Last updated 2025-09-09

Study results available
· View outcomes & findings →

Summary

This study uses techniques from an area of research known as neuroeconomics, which integrates concepts and methods from psychology, neuroscience, and economics to better understand how people make decisions and how these decisions are supported by the brain. One neuroeconomic concept that is especially relevant in the area of addictions is substance demand, or how consumption of a commodity (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, or drugs) is influenced by price and other factors. Previous studies have shown that alcohol demand is related to severity of alcohol misuse, drinking quantity/frequency, and treatment outcomes. In addition, we know that alcohol demand can also fluctuate in response to environmental cues such as alcohol-related stimuli or external contingencies such as important responsibilities the following day. These increase and decreases in consumption and value are clinically significant because they help us understand how people with alcohol use disorders are able to successfully or unsuccessfully modulate their drinking behaviors. This study is examining how the brain responds in these situations and whether these responses differ as a function of severity of alcohol misuse. This study will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand brain activity patterns associated with changes in the value of alcohol in the presence of alcohol-related beverage cues relative to neutral-related beverage cue. Participants will be non-treatment-seeking adult heavy drinkers who are recruited from the community to participate in an fMRI scan. During the scan, participants will make decisions about how many alcohol beverages they would consume (hypothetically) at various prices while their brain activity during those decisions is measured. The experimental manipulation involves an in-scanner alcohol cue exposure task in which the drinking decisions will be made after viewing high-quality images of alcoholic (beer/wine/liquor) beverages or neutral (water/juice/soft drinks) beverages.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cue Exposure

Participants will undergo a validated in-scanner alcohol cue and neutral cue exposure protocol involving passive viewing of images of alcohol beverages (beer, wine, or liquor) and neutral beverages (water).

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Michael Amlung, PhD · University of Kansas

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age
21 Years
Max Age
55 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2020-01-01
Primary Completion
2023-12-31
Completion
2023-12-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases
Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04067765 on ClinicalTrials.gov