Attention Concentration DifficultyNCT03882957
Trial on the Effect of Media Multi-tasking on Attention to Food Cues and Cued Overeating
A study testing Sustained attention, media multi-task and Video in people with Attention Concentration Difficulty and Obesity, Childhood, run by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 13 to 17 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Attention Concentration Difficulty, Obesity, Childhood
- What is being tested?
- Sustained attention, media multi-task and Video
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 92 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 5 Jun 2019to 12 Mar 2020
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 13 to 17 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child
Who may be able to join
- N/A.
Who cannot join
- Inadequate English proficiency, a vision disorder that is not corrected with corrective lenses, and relevant food allergies.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
Dartmouth-Hithchock Medical Center
Lebanon, New Hampshire, 03756
About this study
Official title: Media Multi-tasking and Cued Overeating: Assessing the Pathway and Piloting an Intervention Using an Attentional Network Framework
Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. For example, environmental food cues stimulate brain reward regions and lead to overeating even after a child has eaten to satiety. This type of cued eating is associated with increased attention to food cues; the amount of time a child spends looking at food cues (e.g., food advertisements) is associated with increased caloric intake. However, individual susceptibility to environmental food cues remains unknown. It is proposed that the prevalent practice of media multi-tasking-simultaneously attending to multiple electronic media sources-increases attention to peripheral food cues in the environment and thereby plays an important role in the development of obesity. It is hypothesized that multi-tasking teaches children to engage in constant task switching that makes them more responsive to peripheral cues, many of which are potentially harmful (such as those that promote overeating). The overarching hypothesis is that media multi-tasking alters the attentional networks of the brain that control attention to environmental cues. High media multi-tasking children are therefore particularly susceptible to food cues, thereby leading to increased cued eating. It is also predicted that attention modification training can provide a protective effect against detrimental attentional processing caused multi-tasking, by increasing the proficiency of the attention networks. These hypotheses will be tested by assessing the pathway between media-multitasking, attention to food cues, and cued eating. It will also be examined whether it is possible to intervene on this pathway by piloting an at-home attention modification training intervention designed to reduce attention to food cues. It is our belief that this research will lead to the development of low-cost, scalable tools that can train attention networks so that children are less influenced by peripheral food cues, a known cause of overeating. For example, having children practice attention modification intervention tasks regularly (which could be accomplished through user-friendly computer games or cell phone/tablet apps) might offset the negative attentional effects of media multi-tasking.
Read the detailed description
[3/14/2020]: Study recruitment temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Being tested
- Sustained attention, media multi-task, Video
- Keywords
- Attention, Food cues, Media multi-tasking
- Medical subject headings
- Pediatric Obesity
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Sustained attentionBehavioural
participants will complete a sustained attention task
media multi-taskBehavioural
participants will complete multiple media tasks at the same time
VideoOther
participants will watch a video of media tasks being completed
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Video | Active comparator | videos of media tasks being completed Receives: Other: Video |
| media multi-task | Experimental | media tasks Receives: Behavioral: media multi-task |
| sustained attention task | Experimental | a cognitive task that trains sustained attention Receives: Behavioral: Sustained attention |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game
Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time spent looking at static food cues while participants play a media game on the computer. The amount time spent looking at a food cue is a measure how much attention was given to the food cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention.
Measured: approximately 15 minutes post-intervention
Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention
The amount of kcals consumed of snack foods after participants have completed the intervention.
Measured: approximately 30 minutes post-intervention
Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking
Participants reported on their usual media multitasking using the short form media multitasking index. This index asks about media multitasking with other print and digital media during four primary activities: 1) watching television or movies, 2) playing video games, 3) reading books or magazines (not assigned for school), and 4) doing homework. For each activity, participants reported the frequency with which they multitasked by engaging in the other activities by using a 5-point likert scale (i.e., 0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Always). A usual media multitasking score was computed by taking the average of the Likert response. The score ranges from 0 to 4 with a higher score indicative of higher self-reported usual media multitasking.
Measured: approximately 10 minutes prior to the intervention
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted20 Mar 2019
- Study start5 Jun 2019
- Primary completion12 Mar 2020
- Study completion12 Mar 2020
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, outcome measures and adverse events reported by the sponsor.
- Publications (73)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Attention Concentration DifficultyStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Model description
- This is a within-subject design where each participant is randomly assigned to all three arms.
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 92 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Dartmouth College
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Diane Gilbert-Diamond, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
- Investigators
- Diane Gilbert-Diamond, ScD, Principal investigator, Dartmouth College
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03882957
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- D19065
- Other IDs
- 1R21HD097475-01
- Status last verified
- May 2022
- First submitted
- 19 Mar 2019
- Last updated
- 14 Jun 2022
- Results posted
- Yes, on ClinicalTrials.gov
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Rapuano KM, Zieselman AL, Kelley WM, Sargent JD, Heatherton TF, Gilbert-Diamond D. Genetic risk for obesity predicts nucleus accumbens size and responsivity to real-world food cues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 3;114(1):160-165. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1605548113. Epub 2016 Dec 19.
PubMed 27994159Folkvord F, Anschutz DJ, Wiers RW, Buijzen M. The role of attentional bias in the effect of food advertising on actual food intake among children. Appetite. 2015 Jan;84:251-8. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.10.016. Epub 2014 Oct 22.
PubMed 25451582Corbetta M, Patel G, Shulman GL. The reorienting system of the human brain: from environment to theory of mind. Neuron. 2008 May 8;58(3):306-24. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.017.
PubMed 18466742Corbetta M, Shulman GL. Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002 Mar;3(3):201-15. doi: 10.1038/nrn755.
PubMed 11994752Hou Y, Liu T. Neural correlates of object-based attentional selection in human cortex. Neuropsychologia. 2012 Oct;50(12):2916-2925. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.08.022. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
PubMed 22963835Moisala M, Salmela V, Hietajarvi L, Salo E, Carlson S, Salonen O, Lonka K, Hakkarainen K, Salmela-Aro K, Alho K. Media multitasking is associated with distractibility and increased prefrontal activity in adolescents and young adults. Neuroimage. 2016 Jul 1;134:113-121. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.011. Epub 2016 Apr 8.
PubMed 27063068Yap JY, Lim SWH. Media multitasking predicts unitary versus splitting visual focal attention. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. Routledge; 2013 Nov;25(7):889-902.
Ophir E, Nass C, Wagner AD. Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Sep 15;106(37):15583-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903620106. Epub 2009 Aug 24.
PubMed 19706386Boutelle KN, Kuckertz JM, Carlson J, Amir N. A pilot study evaluating a one-session attention modification training to decrease overeating in obese children. Appetite. 2014 May;76:180-5. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.01.075. Epub 2014 Feb 8.
PubMed 24512975Posner MI, Petersen SE. The attention system of the human brain. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1990;13:25-42. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000325. No abstract available.
PubMed 2183676Pozuelos JP, Paz-Alonso PM, Castillo A, Fuentes LJ, Rueda MR. Development of attention networks and their interactions in childhood. Dev Psychol. 2014 Oct;50(10):2405-15. doi: 10.1037/a0037469. Epub 2014 Jul 28.
PubMed 25069052Hill LJ, Coats RO, Mushtaq F, Williams JH, Aucott LS, Mon-Williams M. Moving to Capture Children's Attention: Developing a Methodology for Measuring Visuomotor Attention. PLoS One. 2016 Jul 19;11(7):e0159543. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159543. eCollection 2016.
PubMed 27434198Birch LL, Fisher JO. Development of eating behaviors among children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 1998 Mar;101(3 Pt 2):539-49.
PubMed 12224660Rideout VJ, Foehr UG, Roberts DF. Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 10-year olds. 2010 Jan.
Rideout VJ. Zero to eight: Children's media use in America 2013. New York, New York: Common Sense Media.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 14 Jun 2022. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Media Multi-tasking and Cued Overeating: Assessing the Pathway and Piloting an Intervention Using an Attentional Network Framework
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03882957
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- D19065
- Keywords
- Attention, Food cues, Media multi-tasking
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 92 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Dartmouth College
- Study start
- 5 Jun 2019 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 12 Mar 2020 (actual)
- Study completion
- 12 Mar 2020 (actual)
- First posted
- 20 Mar 2019 (actual)
- Results
- Posted 14 Jun 2022
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. For example, environmental food cues stimulate brain reward regions and lead to overeating even after a child has eaten to satiety. This type of cued eating is associated with increased attention to food cues; the amount of time a child spends looking at food cues (e.g., food advertisements) is associated with increased caloric intake. However, individual susceptibility to environmental food cues remains unknown. It is proposed that the prevalent practice of media multi-tasking-simultaneously attending to multiple electronic media sources-increases attention to peripheral food cues in the environment and thereby plays an important role in the development of obesity. It is hypothesized that multi-tasking teaches children to engage in constant task switching that makes them more responsive to peripheral cues, many of which are potentially harmful (such as those that promote overeating). The overarching hypothesis is that media multi-tasking alters the attentional networks of the brain that control attention to environmental cues. High media multi-tasking children are therefore particularly susceptible to food cues, thereby leading to increased cued eating. It is also predicted that attention modification training can provide a protective effect against detrimental attentional processing caused multi-tasking, by increasing the proficiency of the attention networks. These hypotheses will be tested by assessing the pathway between media-multitasking, attention to food cues, and cued eating. It will also be examined whether it is possible to intervene on this pathway by piloting an at-home attention modification training intervention designed to reduce attention to food cues. It is our belief that this research will lead to the development of low-cost, scalable tools that can train attention networks so that children are less influenced by peripheral food cues, a known cause of overeating. For example, having children practice attention modification intervention tasks regularly (which could be accomplished through user-friendly computer games or cell phone/tablet apps) might offset the negative attentional effects of media multi-tasking.
Detailed description
[3/14/2020]: Study recruitment temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 3
- Model description
- This is a within-subject design where each participant is randomly assigned to all three arms.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Video | Active comparator | Other: Videovideos of media tasks being completed |
| media multi-task | Experimental | Behavioral: media multi-taskmedia tasks |
| sustained attention task | Experimental | Behavioral: Sustained attentiona cognitive task that trains sustained attention |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 13 to 17 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- N/A.
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Inadequate English proficiency, a vision disorder that is not corrected with corrective lenses, and relevant food allergies.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Sustained attentionparticipants will complete a sustained attention task | Behavioural | sustained attention task |
| media multi-taskparticipants will complete multiple media tasks at the same time | Behavioural | media multi-task |
| Videoparticipants will watch a video of media tasks being completed | Other | Video |
Primary outcome
Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game
Time frame: approximately 15 minutes post-intervention
Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time spent looking at static food cues while participants play a media game on the computer. The amount time spent looking at a food cue is a measure how much attention was given to the food cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention.
Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention
Time frame: approximately 30 minutes post-intervention
The amount of kcals consumed of snack foods after participants have completed the intervention.
Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking
Time frame: approximately 10 minutes prior to the intervention
Participants reported on their usual media multitasking using the short form media multitasking index. This index asks about media multitasking with other print and digital media during four primary activities: 1) watching television or movies, 2) playing video games, 3) reading books or magazines (not assigned for school), and 4) doing homework. For each activity, participants reported the frequency with which they multitasked by engaging in the other activities by using a 5-point likert scale (i.e., 0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Always). A usual media multitasking score was computed by taking the average of the Likert response. The score ranges from 0 to 4 with a higher score indicative of higher self-reported usual media multitasking.
Results and safety
Loading the posted results from ClinicalTrials.gov…
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 14 Jun 2022.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, baseline, all outcome measures and adverse events.
- Background: PubMed 27994159Rapuano KM, Zieselman AL, Kelley WM, Sargent JD, Heatherton TF, Gilbert-Diamond D. Genetic risk for obesity predicts nucleus accumbens size and responsivity to real-world food cues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 3;114(1):160-165. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1605548113. Epub 2016 Dec 19.
- Background: PubMed 25451582Folkvord F, Anschutz DJ, Wiers RW, Buijzen M. The role of attentional bias in the effect of food advertising on actual food intake among children. Appetite. 2015 Jan;84:251-8. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.10.016. Epub 2014 Oct 22.
- Background: PubMed 18466742Corbetta M, Patel G, Shulman GL. The reorienting system of the human brain: from environment to theory of mind. Neuron. 2008 May 8;58(3):306-24. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.017.
- Background: PubMed 11994752Corbetta M, Shulman GL. Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002 Mar;3(3):201-15. doi: 10.1038/nrn755.
- Background: PubMed 22963835Hou Y, Liu T. Neural correlates of object-based attentional selection in human cortex. Neuropsychologia. 2012 Oct;50(12):2916-2925. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.08.022. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
- Background: PubMed 27063068Moisala M, Salmela V, Hietajarvi L, Salo E, Carlson S, Salonen O, Lonka K, Hakkarainen K, Salmela-Aro K, Alho K. Media multitasking is associated with distractibility and increased prefrontal activity in adolescents and young adults. Neuroimage. 2016 Jul 1;134:113-121. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.011. Epub 2016 Apr 8.
- BackgroundYap JY, Lim SWH. Media multitasking predicts unitary versus splitting visual focal attention. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. Routledge; 2013 Nov;25(7):889-902.
- Background: PubMed 19706386Ophir E, Nass C, Wagner AD. Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Sep 15;106(37):15583-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903620106. Epub 2009 Aug 24.
- Background: PubMed 24512975Boutelle KN, Kuckertz JM, Carlson J, Amir N. A pilot study evaluating a one-session attention modification training to decrease overeating in obese children. Appetite. 2014 May;76:180-5. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.01.075. Epub 2014 Feb 8.
- Background: PubMed 2183676Posner MI, Petersen SE. The attention system of the human brain. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1990;13:25-42. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000325. No abstract available.
- Background: PubMed 25069052Pozuelos JP, Paz-Alonso PM, Castillo A, Fuentes LJ, Rueda MR. Development of attention networks and their interactions in childhood. Dev Psychol. 2014 Oct;50(10):2405-15. doi: 10.1037/a0037469. Epub 2014 Jul 28.
- Background: PubMed 27434198Hill LJ, Coats RO, Mushtaq F, Williams JH, Aucott LS, Mon-Williams M. Moving to Capture Children's Attention: Developing a Methodology for Measuring Visuomotor Attention. PLoS One. 2016 Jul 19;11(7):e0159543. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159543. eCollection 2016.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Diane Gilbert-Diamond, ScD principal investigator
Dartmouth College
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Sustained attention, media multi-task and Video in people with Attention Concentration Difficulty and Obesity, Childhood, run by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 14 Jun 2022. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 14 Jun 2022). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game (time frame: approximately 15 minutes post-intervention). The study lists 3 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03882957, which also lists 73 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 14 Jun 2022.