Decision MakingNCT06440577
Craving & Decision-Making
A study testing Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing), Audio-visual stimuli (Drug) and Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) in people with Decision Making, run by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Craving is the strong desire for something, such as for substances in drug addiction and food or other activities in everyday life. Recent work suggests craving can influence how people make decisions and assign value to choice options available to them, yet the neural mechanisms underlying these interactions between… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Decision Making
- What is being tested?
- Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing), Audio-visual stimuli (Drug) and Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food)
- Type of treatment
- Injection or infusion, Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 160 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 18 Jun 2024to Dec 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
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 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- At least 18 years of age
- Willingness to follow study requirements, as evidenced by an ability to provide written informed consent and read, understand, and complete the study procedures
- Minimum of 6th grade reading level
- Additional inclusion criteria for participants with OUD:
- Primary diagnosis of OUD encompassing heroin and/or painkiller use
- Receiving medications for OUD treatment on an outpatient basis
- At least 12-month history of opioid use
Who cannot join
- Unable to speak or read English
- Active psychosis or mania
- Current or past schizophrenia diagnosis
- History of intellectual disability or developmental or neurological disorder, seizures or epilepsy, or loss consciousness lasting more than 30 minutes
- Severe medical conditions requiring hospitalization or that, in the opinion of the study staff could compromise study participation
- MRI contraindications (claustrophobia, nonremovable piercings, certain metal in the body etc.) or pregnancy
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- Additional exclusion criteria for community control participants:
- Positive urine drug screen
- Current or past problematic substance use other than nicotine, and alcohol abuse confined to college or military service
- Current or past bipolar disorder diagnosis
- Use of central nervous system medications within the past 6 weeks (e.g., antidepressants, Ritalin)
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854
Anna Konova, PhD
About this study
Official title: Decision Neuroscience of Craving
Craving is the strong desire for something, such as for substances in drug addiction and food or other activities in everyday life. Recent work suggests craving can influence how people make decisions and assign value to choice options available to them, yet the neural mechanisms underlying these interactions between craving and valuation remain unknown. To address this, this study uses cognitive decision-making tasks that measure how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to have everyday consumer items or snack foods when they crave something specific (opioids or a specific snack, respectively). First, the study will identify the neural mechanisms for how drug craving (craving for opioids) interacts with valuation for consumer items that have associations with drug use or not in people receiving treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). This will be evaluated in the activity patterns and interactions among brain regions involved in craving and value assignment during decision-making. Then, the study will examine for parallel mechanisms for how food craving (craving for a specific snack) interacts with valuation for snack food items that have similar features to the craved snack or not in people receiving treatment for OUD and non-psychiatric community control participants.
- Conditions
- Decision Making
- Being tested
- Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing), Audio-visual stimuli (Drug), Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food), Audio-visual stimuli (Food)
- Keywords
- Craving, Decision Making, Opioid Use Disorder, Dietary Choice
- Medical subject headings
- Opioid-Related Disorders
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing)Behavioural
Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of neutral everyday objects (e.g., tools, dirt) and their use (construction, gardening).
Audio-visual stimuli (Drug)Behavioural
Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of drug paraphernalia (e.g., syringe, tourniquet, heroin) and preparation.
Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food)Behavioural
Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping an everyday object (e.g., box of crayons) and taking out its contents.
Audio-visual stimuli (Food)Behavioural
Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping a snack (e.g., chocolate bar, bag of chips) and taking out its contents.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task | Experimental | Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for everyday consumer items that have associations with drug use or not. Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and drug craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing) and Audio-visual stimuli (Drug). Receives: Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing); Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Drug) |
| Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task | Experimental | Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment and control participants from the community will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for snack food items that vary in their features (savory, sweet, etc.). Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and food craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) and Audio-visual stimuli (Food). Receives: Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food); Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Food) |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Willingness-to-pay
The amount that a participant would be willing to pay for different available choice options. This is measured during the decision-making tasks in which participants are shown images of consumer items or snack foods and report how much they would be willing to pay to have the different items in that moment.
Measured: during the task
fMRI-BOLD activity measured during willingness-to-pay decisions
Functional MRI data will be analyzed to measure changes in blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in specific regions of interest based on prior research (ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insula) as participants make willingness-to-pay decisions during each task.
Measured: during the task
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted4 Jun 2024
- Study start18 Jun 2024
- Primary completionDec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completionDec 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Decision MakingStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- 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
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Model description
- Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment will complete both the Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task and Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task at two separate task sessions. Non-psychiatric community control participants will complete the Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 160 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Anna B. Konova, PhD, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Investigators
- Anna Konova, PhD, Principal investigator, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06440577
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- Pro2018002176
- Other IDs
- R01DA054201
- Status last verified
- Jun 2026
- First submitted
- 28 May 2024
- Last updated
- 4 Jun 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 4 Jun 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Decision Neuroscience of Craving
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06440577
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- Pro2018002176
- Conditions
- Decision Making
- Keywords
- Craving, Decision Making, Opioid Use Disorder, Dietary Choice
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 160 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Study start
- 18 Jun 2024 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Dec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Dec 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 4 Jun 2024 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Craving is the strong desire for something, such as for substances in drug addiction and food or other activities in everyday life. Recent work suggests craving can influence how people make decisions and assign value to choice options available to them, yet the neural mechanisms underlying these interactions between craving and valuation remain unknown. To address this, this study uses cognitive decision-making tasks that measure how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to have everyday consumer items or snack foods when they crave something specific (opioids or a specific snack, respectively). First, the study will identify the neural mechanisms for how drug craving (craving for opioids) interacts with valuation for consumer items that have associations with drug use or not in people receiving treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). This will be evaluated in the activity patterns and interactions among brain regions involved in craving and value assignment during decision-making. Then, the study will examine for parallel mechanisms for how food craving (craving for a specific snack) interacts with valuation for snack food items that have similar features to the craved snack or not in people receiving treatment for OUD and non-psychiatric community control participants.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment will complete both the Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task and Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task at two separate task sessions. Non-psychiatric community control participants will complete the Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task | Experimental | Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing), Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Drug)Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for everyday consumer items that have associations with drug use or not. Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and drug craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing) and Audio-visual stimuli (Drug). |
| Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task | Experimental | Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food), Behavioral: Audio-visual stimuli (Food)Men and women with OUD receiving medications for OUD treatment and control participants from the community will complete a decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in which they indicate their willingness-to-pay for snack food items that vary in their features (savory, sweet, etc.). Interleaved with blocks of the task, participants will briefly observe stimuli that can produce a change in their psychological state and food craving, via two psychological/behavioral interventions: Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) and Audio-visual stimuli (Food). |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (7 listed)
- At least 18 years of age
- Willingness to follow study requirements, as evidenced by an ability to provide written informed consent and read, understand, and complete the study procedures
- Minimum of 6th grade reading level
- Primary diagnosis of OUD encompassing heroin and/or painkiller use
- Receiving medications for OUD treatment on an outpatient basis
Key exclusion criteria (11 listed)
- Unable to speak or read English
- Active psychosis or mania
- Current or past schizophrenia diagnosis
- History of intellectual disability or developmental or neurological disorder, seizures or epilepsy, or loss consciousness lasting more than 30 minutes
- Severe medical conditions requiring hospitalization or that, in the opinion of the study staff could compromise study participation
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing)Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of neutral everyday objects (e.g., tools, dirt) and their use (construction, gardening). | Behavioural | Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task |
| Audio-visual stimuli (Drug)Audio instruction for participant to allow themselves to experience their feelings followed by 3-min passive viewing of images of drug paraphernalia (e.g., syringe, tourniquet, heroin) and preparation. | Behavioural | Consumer Items Willingness-to-Pay Task |
| Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food)Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping an everyday object (e.g., box of crayons) and taking out its contents. | Behavioural | Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task |
| Audio-visual stimuli (Food)Audio instruction for participant to focus their attention on the experimenter followed by 3-min audio-guided viewing of the experimenter opening/unwrapping a snack (e.g., chocolate bar, bag of chips) and taking out its contents. | Behavioural | Snack Foods Willingness-to-Pay Task |
Primary outcome
Willingness-to-pay
Time frame: during the task
The amount that a participant would be willing to pay for different available choice options. This is measured during the decision-making tasks in which participants are shown images of consumer items or snack foods and report how much they would be willing to pay to have the different items in that moment.
fMRI-BOLD activity measured during willingness-to-pay decisions
Time frame: during the task
Functional MRI data will be analyzed to measure changes in blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in specific regions of interest based on prior research (ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insula) as participants make willingness-to-pay decisions during each task.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 4 Jun 2026.
- 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.
Anna Konova, PhD principal investigator
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Audio-visual stimuli (Neutral-Relaxing), Audio-visual stimuli (Drug) and Audio-visual stimuli (Non-Food) in people with Decision Making, run by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 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 7 inclusion and 11 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: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 4 Jun 2026. 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?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Anna Konova, PhD (732-235-4335, anna.konova@rutgers.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Willingness-to-pay (time frame: during the task). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
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 4 Jun 2026.