Using the Musical Track From GC-MRT as a Treatment Booster in Stressful Situations

Using the Musical Track From Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy as a Treatment Booster in Stressful Situations Among Highly Socially Anxious Participants

The study examines whether musical tracks played during gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) for social anxiety could later be used as a booster to reduce anxiety before a stressful situation. To this end, highly socially anxious participants will undergo 4 GC-MRT sessions designed to train participants' attention away from threat and towards neutral social stimuli. Subsequently, participants will be asked to perform a socially stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during the GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy; Behavioral: Music Booster

Detailed Description

Gaze contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT) is designed to modify threat-related attention biases through operational conditioning between beloved music and gaze patterns favoring neutral stimuli over threat-related stimuli. GC-MRT has shown efficacy in reducing social anxiety symptoms. The current study is designed to explore whether the musical tracks played during the GC-MRT conditioning could be later used as a treatment booster to reduce anxiety in a socially stressful situation. To this end, 60 high socially anxious participants will undergo four GC-MRT sessions and then will be asked to perform a stressful speech task. Prior to the speech, half of the participants (randomly determined) will listen to a musical track the participants were trained with, and half of the participants will listen to a musical track the participants like but were not trained with during GC-MRT sessions. The investigators expect that the listening to musical track taken from the GC-MRT sessions will moderate the increase in anxiety levels prior to the speech and will improve performance during the speech compared to a non-trained musical track.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Israel
  • Tel Aviv, Israel
    • Tel Aviv University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• a signed consent form
• an age of 18 years or above
• a score greater than 60 on LSAS

Exclusion Criteria:

• a self-reported history of neurological or psychiatric illness

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Active GC-MRT Booster; Following four sessions of Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy training participants' attention away from threats and towards neutral stimuli, participants will listen to a musical track they will have been trained with prior to a stressful speech task.	Behavioral: Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy; Feedback according to participants' viewing patterns, in order to modify their attention.; Behavioral: Music Booster; Participants listen to a musical track they ranked as highly liked before a stressful situation
PLACEBO_COMPARATOR: Control Booster; Following four sessions of Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy training participants' attention away from threats and towards neutral stimuli, participants will listen to a musical track they will not have been trained with but ranked as highly liked prior to a stressful speech task.	Behavioral: Gaze Contingent Music Reward Therapy; Feedback according to participants' viewing patterns, in order to modify their attention.; Behavioral: Music Booster; Participants listen to a musical track they ranked as highly liked before a stressful situation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from baseline - the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale - Self Reported Version	The LSAS is a 24-item scale, each item corresponding to a situation selected on the basis of clinical experience. Each item is rated on a severity scale ranging from 0 to 3 with regard to the passing week, measuring separately two components of social anxiety, specifically, fear/anxiety and avoidance of social interaction and performance situations.	2 days before intervention, 4-10 days after intervention completion
Change from baseline - the Visual Analogue Scale - Anxiety	The Visual Analogue Scale Anxiety (VAS-A) measures state anxiety. Participants are instructed to use the computer mouse and place the locator at the scale position representing their current level of anxiety in response to the question, "How anxious do you feel right now?". The VAS is divided into thirty units from 0 ("calm") to 30 ("anxious") while the participants do not see the division into calves and are asked to answer according to their feeling.	4-10 days after intervention completion (baseline of the speech session, after introducing the speech task, after listening to a musical track, after preparation to the speech,after the speech is over).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
PSPS (Public Speaking Performance Scale)	The Public Speaking Performance Scale comprises 17 items concerning speech quality. Items are rated by independent judges on a 5-point scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Higher scores denote worse performance.	4-10 days after intervention completion (During speech task)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from baseline - viewing patterns on threat-neutral face matrices	Gaze patterns, and specifically attention allocation to threat will be used as moderators for clinical outcome, as well as indicators of target engagement.	At the first day of intervention, 4-10 days after intervention completion

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Tel Aviv University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): November 7, 2021
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): June 20, 2022
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): June 20, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 15, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 1, 2021
• First Posted (ACTUAL): December 15, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): June 22, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 20, 2022
• Last Verified: June 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: TAUgcMRTbooster

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No