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NCT Number: NCT05617898

Determining the Role of Social Reward Learning in Social Anhedonia

This is a clinical trial study that aims to evaluate the specificity of the relationship between reduced sensitivity to social reward and social anhedonia at both behavioral and neural levels. Individuals who recently experienced their first-episode psychosis will be recruited. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to motivational interviewing or a time- and format-matched control probe. At pre- and post-probe, participants will perform two social reward learning tasks in the scanner. With this design feature, we will examine the relationship between sensitivity to social reward and reduced subjective experience of social pleasure at both the behavioral and neural levels.

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Key information

Conditions

Psychosis Anhedonia Mental Disorders Nervous System Diseases Neurobehavioral Manifestations Neurologic Manifestations Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Psychotic Disorders Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year–35 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States

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Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 18-35 years
  • A first episode of a psychotic illness that began within the past three years
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophreniform, or schizoaffective disorder
  • Taking 2nd generation antipsychotic medications
  • Estimated premorbid IQ not less than 70 as assessed with the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading
  • Appropriate for scanning (i.e., no pacemaker or metal implants) and expressed willingness to participate in scanning
  • Sufficient fluency in English to comprehend testing procedures
  • Corrected vision of at least 20/30

Exclusion criteria

  • No evidence that substance use makes the diagnosis ambiguous (rule out substance-induced psychosis)
  • No evidence of moderate or severe alcohol or substance use disorder in the past 3 months
  • No clinically significant disease based on medical history (e.g., epilepsy) or significant head injury
  • For females: no current pregnancy
  • No sedatives or anxiolytics on the day of assessment
  • No medication change 3 weeks prior to enrollment

Treatment and study plan

Motivational Interviewing

Behavioral

Three motivational interviewing sessions will target sensitivity to social reward, including subjective evaluation of social interaction, socially rewarding stimuli, and events (e.g., interactions with others, feedback from others).

Nutrition Didactic Training

Behavioral

The Nutrition didactic training will ask participants to discuss pros and cons of healthy eating habits and how to improve their current eating habits.

Primary outcomes

  1. Response Bias

    Time frame: 3 weeks

    Response bias is defined as the likelihood of making one response, such as the frequently rewarded stimulus, more than the other response during the perceptual social reward learning task

  2. the number of optimal response

    Time frame: 3 weeks

    The number of optimal response is defined as the number of responses choosing a stimuli with optimal outcomes (e.g., choosing a good over a neutral machine or choosing a neutral over a bad machine) during the inductive social reward learning task.

  3. fMRI activation levels

    Time frame: 3 weeks

    fMRI activation is defined as beta weights from general linear model from key regions of interests including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and ventral striatum during the perceptual social reward learning task and the inductive social reward learning task.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Andrew Meddaugh, BA

CONTACT

[email protected]

205-934-8203

Junghee Lee, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

205-934-8205

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
  • University of California, Los Angeles

Registry information

Official study title

Determining the Role of Social Reward Learning in Social Anhedonia in First-Episode Psychosis Using Motivational Interviewing in a Perturbation-Based Neuroimaging Approach

Acronym: SAMI

Important dates

Study start
2023
Primary completion
2027
Study completion
2027
First posted
Nov 16, 2022
Registry last updated
Jul 27, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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