Stressor-evoked Brain and Cardiovascular Responses to Acute Psychological Stress

The present study will examine cardiovascular, metabolic, and neural responses to acute psychological stress using a cross-sectional approach.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Acute Psychological Stress
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Acute psychological stress

Detailed Description

All participants in this study will undergo an acute psychological stress paradigm, consisting of two acute psychological stress tasks (MSIT and Stoop). There is no formal randomization since al participants are randomized to undergo the acute psychological stress tasks.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 170
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Waco, Texas, United States, 76799
      • Baylor University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-30 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Chronic medical or neurological condition
• Pregnant
• Current illness or infection
• Any condition that would prohibit engaging in physical exercise
• Any metal implants in body
• Claustrophobia

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Acute psychological stress task (MSIT; Stroop); Multi-source interference task (MSIT; Stroop)	Other: Acute psychological stress; Experimental: Acute psychological stress Two, acute-psychological stress tasks known to reliably elicit a cardiovascular responses (Multi-source interference task; Stroop).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Stressor-evoked Oxygen Consumption in mL/(kg·Min) (Stress - Baseline)	Stressor-evoked oxygen consumption. (Oxygen consumption during acute psychological stress task - Oxygen consumption during resting baseline).	18 minutes (approximately 9 minutes for each task)
Heart Rate (Bpm) Measured by Electrocardiogram	Stressor-evoked heart rate. (Heart rate during acute psychological stress task - Heart rate during resting baseline).	18 minutes (approximately 9 minutes for each stress task)
Neural Activity Measured by fMRI	Stressor-evoked neural activity. Incongruent-vs-Congruent t at the group-level, filtered at 0.05 after FDR correction and with a cluster extent of 50 voxels.	18 minutes (approximately 9 minutes for each stress task).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Baylor University
• Collaborators: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Annie Ginty, PhD, Baylor University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 2, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 5, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 7, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): June 10, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 24, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 23, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1437575; K01HL145021 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: There is no plan to share IPD with other rsearchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

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