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The Association Between the Stress Hormone Cortisol and Decision-making
Sponsor: Marie-France Marin
Summary
The goal of this study is to learn how acute psychosocial stress influences decision-making in healthy young adults. It will also examine whether cortisol reactivity, a biological stress response, changes the influence of physiological emotional signals on decision-making (i.e., the gut feeling indicating risks). The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does exposure to an acute psychosocial stressor affect the development of physiological emotional signals during decision-making? 2. Does cortisol reactivity moderate the relationship between physiological emotional signals and decision-making? 3. Are there sex differences in these relationships? Researchers will compare participants exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress procedure, with participants exposed to a non-stressful control condition. Participants will: 1. Be randomly assigned to either a psychosocial stress condition or a control condition. 2. Complete a gambling decision-making task following the experimental manipulation. 3. Provide multiple saliva samples and subjective stress ratings throughout the session to assess stress reactivity. 4. Undergo continuous electrodermal activity recording during the decision-making task to measure physiological emotional signals.
Official title: Stress-induced Cortisol Clouds the Gut Feeling in Decision-making: A Randomized Controlled Study
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 35 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
116
Start Date
2021-09-13
Completion Date
2024-11-07
Last Updated
2026-07-14
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
Trier Social Stress Test
Participants completed a slightly modified version of the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), a validated psychosocial stress induction protocol. The protocol involved a 10-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute test phase: a 5-minute mock job interview and a 5-minute surprise mental arithmetic task. During the test phase, participants stood in front of a one-way mirror ("Panel-out" version) and were told they were being observed by behavioral analysts and recorded via camera, although no recording took place and the analysts were lab confederates.
Locations (1)
Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada