Neurocomputational Dynamics of Cooperation (COBRA)
6. august 2026 oppdatert av: Timothy Allen, University of Pittsburgh
The purpose of this study is to understand brain function, how people make decisions when they interact with others, and how brain function and behavior relate to personality traits.
Studieoversikt
Status
Har ikke rekruttert ennå
Detaljert beskrivelse
Problems in cooperating with others define antagonism, a transdiagnostic dimension of psychopathology expressed in personality and externalizing disorders.
People high on antagonism are prone to aggressive, callous, and exploitative behaviors that damage relationships and incur substantial costs in the form of productivity loss, substance misuse, and criminality.
While clinical theories link antagonism to deficits in social cognition, it is hard to deny that exploiting others requires an understanding of their mind.
This apparent contradiction can be resolved by distinguishing between two facets of antagonism: callousness and exploitativeness.
Prior work by the investigators and preliminary data inform the hypothesis that exploitativeness reflects an enhanced capacity to learn about the mental states and behaviors of others coupled with an increased sensitivity to personal, rather than shared, rewards.
In contrast, callousness reflects a broader insensitivity to social feedback.
The investigators hypothesize that these dissociable social learning processes are instantiated in canonical circuits that expanded during anthropogenesis to support mentalizing and self-directed thought.
These learning signals, which track behaviorally salient features of the social environment, are integrated in the posterior hub of the default network (DN) where they drive adaptive cooperation.
This study proposes to test these hypotheses in two samples elevated on antagonism.
At the behavioral level, participants are characterized using a battery of personality and psychopathology measures, social and reward-based decision-making tasks, and corresponding hierarchically estimated reinforcement learning (RL) models (Aim 1).
In a model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, model-derived learning signals and facets of antagonism are linked to underlying neural activity during cooperative decision-making (Aim 2).
Leveraging the multi-timescale design of our study, the investigators plan to relate neurocomputational signatures of callousness and exploitativeness to mentalizing abilities, multi-informant reports of momentary interpersonal behavior, and prospective stress generation.
Certain elements of study design are withheld from this record to protect the scientific integrity of the study design.
Studietype
Intervensjonell
Registrering (Antatt)
1612
Fase
- Ikke aktuelt
Kontakter og plasseringer
Denne delen inneholder kontaktinformasjon for de som utfører studien, og informasjon om hvor denne studien blir utført.
Studiekontakt
- Navn: Michelle M Berry, MPS
- Telefonnummer: 424-380-1194
- E-post: berrymic@pitt.edu
Studer Kontakt Backup
- Navn: Amanda Collier, BS
- Telefonnummer: 412-901-2938
- E-post: collieral@upmc.edu
Studiesteder
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Pennsylvania
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Forente stater, 15213
- University of Pittsburgh, Bellefield Towers
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Ta kontakt med:
- Michelle M Berry, MPS
- Telefonnummer: 424-380-1194
- E-post: berrymic@pitt.edu
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Ta kontakt med:
- Amanda Collier, BS
- Telefonnummer: 412-901-2938
- E-post: collieral@upmc.edu
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Hovedetterforsker:
- Timothy A Allen, PhD
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Underetterforsker:
- Alexandre Dombrovski, MD
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Deltakelseskriterier
Forskere ser etter personer som passer til en bestemt beskrivelse, kalt kvalifikasjonskriterier. Noen eksempler på disse kriteriene er en persons generelle helsetilstand eller tidligere behandlinger.
Kvalifikasjonskriterier
Alder som er kvalifisert for studier
- Voksen
- Eldre voksen
Tar imot friske frivillige
Ja
Beskrivelse
Online cohort inclusion criteria:
- English fluency
- US residency
- Owner of a desktop or laptop computer
- Adult aged 18-100
Online cohort exclusion criteria:
- Participants who have participated in an earlier version of the study
- Inability to consent
- Self-reported history of neurological disorder or brain damage
- Self-endorsed history of psychosis or mania
Clinical cohort inclusion criteria:
- Adult aged 20-60 years old
- English fluency
- Owner of a smartphone with celluar data
Clinical cohort exclusion criteria:
- Inability to consent
- Self-reported history of neurological disorder or brain damage
- Clinician-rated psychosis or mania in the last 6 months
- Current intoxication or withdrawal
- Estimated IQ < 70
- fMRI safety concerns
- Pregnancy
- Lack of stable psychiatric treatment (e.g., medication dosage, therapy modality) for the previous two months
Informant inclusion criteria:
- Adult aged 18+ years old
- English fluency
- Owner of a smartphone with celluar data
- Must have 4+ interactions/week with the participant for at least 6 months prior to study baseline
Informant exclusion criteria:
- Lack of a smartphone with cellular data at study baseline
Studieplan
Denne delen gir detaljer om studieplanen, inkludert hvordan studien er utformet og hva studien måler.
Hvordan er studiet utformet?
Designdetaljer
- Primært formål: Grunnvitenskap
- Tildeling: Ikke-randomisert
- Intervensjonsmodell: Parallell tildeling
- Masking: Ingen (Open Label)
Våpen og intervensjoner
Deltakergruppe / Arm |
Intervensjon / Behandling |
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Eksperimentell: Online Cohort
The online cohort will include 718 adults ages 18-100 who will complete 1) a battery of behavioral tasks designed to assess social learning and mentalizing abilities, and 2) self-report measures assessing personality, externalizing symptoms, interpersonal functioning, and psychopathology.
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In the primary study task, participants engage in a modified iterative trust game.
Participant choices earn feedback in the form of monetary gains or losses.
All participants are debriefed on the motivation behind study task at the end of their visit.
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Eksperimentell: Clinical Cohort
The study will enroll up to 416 clinical-cohort participants, with an anticipated final eligible sample of 239 adults ages 20-60 who will complete 1) a structured clinical interview and neuropsychological assessments, 2) self-report measures assessing personality, externalizing symptoms, interpersonal functioning, and psychopathology, 3) lab-based tasks designed to assess social learning and mentalizing abilities while monitoring physiological responding with Biopac, 4) task-based fMRI, 5) 21-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol, and 6) additional self-report questionnaires at three yearly follow-ups.
The investigators expect to enroll 416 participants for the start of the protocol to yield 239 final eligible participants to complete fMRI and EMA.
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In the primary study task, participants engage in a modified iterative trust game.
The task is completed in the fMRI scanner and takes about 35 minutes.
Participant choices earn feedback in the form of monetary gains or losses.
All participants are debriefed on the motivation behind the task at the end of their visit.
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Ingen inngripen: Informants
Additionally, 2 informants (ages 18+) for each participant will be recruited to complete self-report measures, one of whom will also enroll in EMA.
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Hva måler studien?
Primære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
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Participant-level Coaxing Score
Tidsramme: During behavioral task visit at study baseline (clinical cohort) or during single online study session (online cohort)
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Participant coaxing behavior will be measured during the primary social learning task.
Coaxing will be operationalized as the difference in the participant's return rate between exchange and secrecy modes on trials in which the coplayer decides not to share.
In exchange mode, the participant knows whether the coplayer chose to share or keep the monetary incentive before indicating whether they would return it.
In secrecy mode, the participant must make the return decision before learning the coplayer's choice.
The coaxing score is calculated as the exchange-mode return rate minus the secrecy-mode return rate.
Scores range from -1 to 1, with positive values indicating greater strategic coaxing and 0 indicating no difference between modes.
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During behavioral task visit at study baseline (clinical cohort) or during single online study session (online cohort)
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Sekundære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
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Mean Informant-rated Momentary Manipulativeness
Tidsramme: Post-baseline 21-day EMA period within year 1 of the study
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Manipulativeness will be assessed using the study-specific Interpersonal Dynamics EMA Battery.
The informant-rated manipulativeness scale contains 3 items, each rated from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree").
At each assessment, responses to the 3 items will be averaged to produce a momentary manipulativeness score that ranges from 1 to 5. Higher scores indicate greater informant-rated manipulativeness.
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Post-baseline 21-day EMA period within year 1 of the study
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Latent Mentalizing Factor
Tidsramme: Baseline
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A latent mentalizing factor will be derived using CFA, with participants' scores on three social cognition tasks serving as indicators.
The latent factor will be standardized to a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1 in the study sample and therefore has no fixed theoretical minimum or maximum.
Higher factor scores indicate greater mentalizing ability.
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Baseline
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Interpersonal Stress
Tidsramme: At 12, 24, and 36 months after baseline
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Interpersonal stress will be assessed using the marital- or partner-relationship and other-relationship life domains of the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults.
At each follow-up, the frequency scores for stressors in these two domains will be averaged to produce an interpersonal stress score.
The score ranges from a minimum of 0 stressors, with no limit on reported stressor maximums.
Higher scores indicate more frequent exposure to interpersonal relationship stressors.
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At 12, 24, and 36 months after baseline
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Samarbeidspartnere og etterforskere
Det er her du vil finne personer og organisasjoner som er involvert i denne studien.
Sponsor
Samarbeidspartnere
Etterforskere
- Hovedetterforsker: Timothy A Allen, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Studierekorddatoer
Disse datoene sporer fremdriften for innsending av studieposter og sammendragsresultater til ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter og rapporterte resultater gjennomgås av National Library of Medicine (NLM) for å sikre at de oppfyller spesifikke kvalitetskontrollstandarder før de legges ut på det offentlige nettstedet.
Studer hoveddatoer
Studiestart (Antatt)
1. september 2026
Primær fullføring (Antatt)
30. juni 2031
Studiet fullført (Antatt)
30. juni 2031
Datoer for studieregistrering
Først innsendt
6. august 2026
Først innsendt som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
6. august 2026
Først lagt ut (Faktiske)
12. august 2026
Oppdateringer av studieposter
Sist oppdatering lagt ut (Faktiske)
12. august 2026
Siste oppdatering sendt inn som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
6. august 2026
Sist bekreftet
1. august 2026
Mer informasjon
Begreper knyttet til denne studien
Nøkkelord
Ytterligere relevante MeSH-vilkår
Andre studie-ID-numre
- STUDY25050217
- R01MH140901 (U.S. NIH-stipend/kontrakt)
Plan for individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)
Planlegger du å dele individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)?
JA
IPD-planbeskrivelse
Individual participant data (IPD) will be shared via the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA) in accordance with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data Management and Sharing Policy. Data will be de-identified and made available to qualified researchers upon request after publication of primary results or completion of the study, as outlined in the NIH-approved Data Sharing Plan.
Task code will be posted on GitHub and/or OSF.
IPD-delingstidsramme
All data will be deposited to NDA starting 12 months after the award begins and will be deposited every six months thereafter following the usual NDA data submission dates.
IPD and supporting information will be available when the award ends (anticipated 06/30/2031). NDA will make decisions about how long to preserve the data, but that data archive has not deleted any deposited data up to now.
Tilgangskriterier for IPD-deling
Deidentified data will be findable for the research community through the NDA Collection that will be established when this application is funded. For all publications, an NDA study will be created. Each of those studies is assigned a digital object identifier (DOI). This data DOI will be referenced in the publication to allow the research community easy access to the exact data used in the publication.
To request access to the data, qualified researchers will use the standard processes at NDA, and the NDA Data Access Committee will decide which requests to grant. The standard NDA data access process allows access for one year and is renewable.
IPD-deling Støtteinformasjonstype
- ANALYTIC_CODE
Legemiddel- og utstyrsinformasjon, studiedokumenter
Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert medikamentprodukt
Nei
Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert enhetsprodukt
Nei
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