The purpose of this research study is to investigate how personality traits and neuroendocrine systems relate to decision-making patterns in individuals 18-45 years old. The main question it aims to answer is how neuroendocrine activity impacts decision-making. Participants will complete online behavioral tasks, a stress induction procedure, self-report surveys, and a cognitive assessment. During the session, psychophysiological measures will be collected, including electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac impedance (ICG) to monitor heart rate and blood flow, as well as electrodermal activity (EDA), blood drop samples, and saliva collection to assess nervous system activity.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
106
Participants will complete the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress, which includes a public speaking simulation and mental arithmetic.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
RECRUITINGGoal-directed decision-making in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. After each action, participants receive feedback about the effect of that action and the extent to which it added to or took away from their points. If participants make a given choice, the subsequent actions that they can choose are different than if they were to initially make a different choice. An action in SDTT is goal-directed if the possible net gain an individual can earn before the end of the current epoch (a "day" in the SDTT) is equal to or higher than the amount they could gain by choosing the alternative action. The investigators will subset trials so that 1 is coded as choosing the immediately valuable action at the expense of the optimal and 0 is coded as choosing the optimal at the expense of the immediately valuable action. This outcome variable is binary.
Time frame: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
Bias toward social actions in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. An action in SDTT is defined as social if it is paired with a visual cue with a face on it and non-social if not. This outcome variable is binary.
Time frame: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
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