Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Recruiting

NCT Number: NCT07094061

Neurobehavioral Signatures of Sign- and Goal-Tracking in Emerging Adults: Translation of a Preclinical Model

This study seeks to understand individual differences in personality, brain function, and behavior.

Study hypothesis:

- A stronger sign-tracking bias will be associated with a bottom-up processing style characterized by less adaptive attentional- and impulse-control as well as hyperactive reward processing, whereas a stronger goal-tracking bias will be associated with a top-down processing style characterized by strong attentional- and impulse-control as well as normative reward processing.

Recruiting

Interested in participating?

Request Info

Key information

Conditions

Substance Use Chemically-Induced Disorders Healthy Mental Disorders Substance-Related Disorders

Age range

18 year–22 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Rachel Upjohn Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Loading trial locations.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

  • 18-22 years old at baseline
  • Right-handed
  • Medically/physically able to give informed consent
  • English-speaking
  • Substance use is free to vary, but for participants with a history of substance use, ≥ 1 use of cannabis (including less than a full dose)

Exclusion criteria

  • Acute or chronic medical or neurological illness (e.g., diabetes, epilepsy, migraine)
  • History of psychosis in self or first-degree relative
  • Current treatment for substance use disorder
  • Current or past 6-month treatment with centrally acting medications (not including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication)
  • Intelligence quotient (IQ) < 70
  • Lifetime history of head trauma with loss of consciousness > 5 minutes
  • Reliance on glasses to be able to read small text at a distance of approximately 30 inches
  • Colorblindness
  • MRI contraindication (e.g., pregnancy, metal implants, claustrophobia) per protocol

Treatment and study plan

fMRI

Device

Participants will have an MRI to scan participants brains and will wear skin conductance electrodes on the hand and fill out questionnaires. Scanning will take approximately 90 minutes. While lying in the scanner, participants will be asked to perform some tasks. The tasks will be presented to participants visually on a screen in the scanner and eye movements will also be tracked during some of these tasks. Participants will respond to stimuli with button presses that are recorded by computer.

Questionnaires and surveys

Behavioral

Participants will have multiple visits during this study and fill out various surveys at these visits.

Behavioral tasks and eye tracking

Behavioral

Participants will perform behavioral tasks while having eye-tracking hardware monitor participants eye movements. A video camera will be used to record eye movements during the behavioral tasks.

Primary outcomes

  1. Correlation between Pavlovian conditioned approach (PavCA) bias score (out-of-scanner) and composite cannabis use score

    Time frame: Baseline

    PavCA bias score based on eye gaze during the Pavlovian conditioned approach task will be correlated with a cannabis use composite score based on the Substance Use History and Timeline Follow-Back.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Correlation between PavCA bias score (out-of-scanner) and activation from the Cannabis Cue Reactivity Task (P-CAN)

    Time frame: Baseline

    PavCA bias score based on eye gaze during the Pavlovian conditioned approach task will be correlated with the first principal component of average parameter estimates from the following regions extracted for the cannabis vs. neutral contrast: ventral striatum, anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, insula, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, inferior occipital cortex, and inferior parietal cortex

Study contacts

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

Paul Holdefer, MPH

CONTACT

[email protected]

734-998-9239

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Michigan

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Registry information

Acronym: SIGN

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2028
Study completion
2028
First posted
Jul 30, 2025
Registry last updated
Jun 10, 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.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.