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Stress & Self-Control Costs

Neural and Affective Mechanisms Underlying Prospective Self-control Costs

Who can join

Ages 18 to 70 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome

Inclusion Criteria:

* 18-70 years of age, able to speak, read, and write fluently in English
* be willing and able to follow study procedures and provide informed consent.
* Must additionally confirm they are on a diet to maintain/lose weight and are implementing/maintaining dietary changes.

Exclusion Criteria:

* History of or medication for neurologic or psychiatric disease
* High-blood pressure or heart condition
* Diabetes, food allergies, metabolic disorders or history of eating disorder
* Use of corticosteroids or beta-blockers
* Metallic implants or devices contraindicating magnetic resonance imaging.
* Pregnancy is considered an exclusion criteria due to all stress and scanning procedures, thus pregnant participants will not be permitted to participate in the study.

About the study

Self-control failures are a universal challenge for healthy and clinical populations. Recent work suggests these failures may arise from excessive cognitive costs associated with exercising self-control, yet the mechanisms underlying these costs are unknown. To address this, the investigators will use a validated decision-making task that measures how much individuals will pay (from a study endowment) to restrict access to tempting rewards that may lead to self-control failures. The investigators will examine these costs to identify their cognitive, neural and affective mechanisms. First, the investigators will identify the cognitive and computational mechanism that gives rise to self-control costs. Second, the investigators will characterize the neural correlates of self-control costs and identify neural mediators and connectivity patterns stemming from these costs. Finally, the investigators will examine how different classes of stressors (physical, social, or lifetime stress) shape the behavioral and neural representations of self-control costs.

What is being tested

• Cold-Pressor Task (CPT) (behavioral)
• Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) (behavioral)
• Modified Non-Stress CPT (behavioral)
• Modified Non-Stress TSST (behavioral)
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (device)

Sponsor: NYU Langone Health · Participants: 300 · Started: Oct 1, 2024

Contact the study team

Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT05795179

Locations in the U.S.

From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.