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A Novel Conditioning Approach to Counter Loneliness in Adults

NCT06521099 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 136

Last updated 2026-03-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study aims to test the efficacy of a 6-session conditioning paradigm by investigating the conditioning-induced change in the socio-affective processing, loneliness, depressive symptoms, and neural correlates of lonely adults.

Conditions

  • Loneliness

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Evaluative Conditioning with positive stimuli

In the pre-conditioning phase, participants will be exposed to pictures that vary in their emotional (negative, positive) and social (non-social, social) content. For each picture, they are required to indicate their immediate perceived valence (between negative to positive), degree of social motivation (between none to high) on Likert-scales. In the conditioning phase, emotional social pictures will be selected and paired with non-social positive stimuli for trials in random order, for 6 sessions across 3 weeks. In the post-conditioning phase, participants will be asked to evaluate the valence of the stimuli again similar to that in pre-conditioning phase.

BEHAVIORAL

Conditioning with neutral stimuli

In the pre-conditioning phase, participants will be exposed to pictures that vary in their emotional (negative, positive) and social (non-social, social) content. For each picture, they are required to indicate their immediate perceived valence (between negative to positive), degree of social motivation (between none to high) on Likert-scales. In the conditioning phase, emotional social pictures will be selected and paired with with neutral non-social stimuli for trials in random order, for 6 sessions across 3 weeks. In the post-conditioning phase, participants will be asked to evaluate the valence of the stimuli again similar to that in pre-conditioning phase.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The University of Hong Kong

    collaborator OTHER

  • Education University of Hong Kong

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Nichol ML Wong, PhD · Education University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-08-19
Primary Completion
2026-06-30
Completion
2026-06-30

Countries

  • Hong Kong

Study Locations

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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 NCT06521099 on ClinicalTrials.gov