Neurocognitive Predictors of Health Risk Behaviors

February 10, 2026 updated by: Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
This study proposes to extend the ongoing longitudinal study of health risk behaviors and obtain new data from former adolescents (followed previously from ages 13-22; Times 1-8) now from ages 23 to 28 (Times 9-11). The goal of this study is to examine the contribution of developing neurocognitive markers to substance use in young adulthood by following a well-characterized longitudinal sample.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The main questions it aims to answer is: what are the long-term effects of valuation and control decision-making systems on health risk behaviors? Participants will complete online surveys assessing their substance use behaviors and perform neurocognitive tasks related to risk processing and cognitive control across three time points.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

117

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Virginia
      • Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, 24061-0001
        • Virginia Tech
      • Roanoke, Virginia, United States, 24016
        • Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Study Population

This observational study extends a longitudinal study of neurocognitive determinants of adolescent substance use into young adulthood. Accordingly, our sample includes young adults (former adolescents) who will participate in three new assessments.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Adolescents (now young adults) who participated in the original longitudinal project.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • standard contraindications for magnetic resonance imaging at the study onset
  • history of seizures/stroke
  • a head injury with > 10 min of unconsciousness or neurological sequelae

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: neurocognition
Neurocognitive tasks
Other: neurocognitive tasks
  1. risk-processing: Participants choose between two choices across 72 trials of a forced choice decision-making neurocognitive task (Holt and Laury, 2002). Each trial included a high and low monetary outcome with an associated probability of occurring. Each choice option is shown as a pie with ten slices represented probabilities, in which each piece corresponded to ten percent.
  2. cognitive control: A multi-source interference task (MSIT; Bush et al., 2003) is used in which participants are presented with three digits and asked to identify the digit different from the others. In the neutral condition, the target's identity is congruent with its relative position. In the interference condition, the target's identity does not match its relative position. There are a total of 96 neutral trials and 96 interference trials.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
substance use behaviors
Time Frame: Approximately every 18 months, 3 times across 5 years
Frequency (past year and past month use) of cigarette/tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and other drug use will be asked.
Approximately every 18 months, 3 times across 5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, PhD, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • Principal Investigator: Brooks Casas, PhD, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 20, 2014

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 31, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 14, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 14, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

April 23, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 10, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Predictors of Risky Behaviors

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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