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Expectation Effects on Emotional Processing

NCT07031804 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 51

Last updated 2025-06-27

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Understanding the mechanisms underlying expectation effects in the affective domain can provide valuable insights into possible therapeutic interventions for mood disorders. Studies have consistently found that expectations can influence emotional experiences. Recently, it has been shown that top-down cognitive control is critical in inducing instruction-based affective placebo effects. However, changes in the emotional system over time not only rely on higher-level cognitive processes but also on more automatic mechanisms shaped by learning and past experiences. How such mechanisms are involved in affective placebo effects is relatively unknown, but is particularly interesting in light of findings showing that previous experiences of successful treatments are an important determinant of placebo responses.

This study aims to investigate the neurobehavioral mechanisms of how expectations and prior experiences modulate emotional processing. Healthy adults (N = 51, 50% women) will be recruited to participate in a cross-over fMRI study involving two conditions: positive expectation induction (placebo) and a control condition with no induced expectations. Participants will perform an emotion classification task under each condition. The investigators hypothesize that positive expectations enhance mood and improve the accuracy of recognizing happy facial expressions. Further, they hypothesize that affective expectations are represented in fMRI signal patterns in networks involved in face perception, emotional processing, and cognitive control.

Conditions

  • Expectation Effects on Emotional Processing

Interventions

OTHER

Saline Nasal Spray

A saline nasal spray will be introduced as saline on the first day (no induced expectations) and as oxytocin on the second day (induced positive expectations)

OTHER

Saline Nasal Spray

A saline nasal spray will be introduced as oxytocin on the first day (induced positive expectations) and as saline on the second day (no induced positive expectations)

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Stefanie Brassen, Prof. Dr. · Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
35 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-06-30
Primary Completion
2026-01-31
Completion
2026-01-31

Countries

  • Germany

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 NCT07031804 on ClinicalTrials.gov