Acute Stress Manipulation for Memory Loss
(M&M Project Trial)
Trial Summary
What is the purpose of this trial?
Child maltreatment is one of the most formidable public health crises in the United States, affecting millions of youth each year. The adverse consequences of maltreatment for youth, as well as for their families and entire communities, are pervasive, costly, and enduring. To intervene and reduce these consequences, it is imperative that victims provide clear and accurate accounts of their prior experiences. Currently, considerable skepticism exists regarding maltreated youth's ability to provide such accounts, especially for experiences that were stressful, leading to youths' reports being challenged or not believed. It is possible that this skepticism is unwarranted, and maltreated youth actually demonstrate better memory than their non-maltreated counterparts, but only for stressful salient personal experiences. This project will ethically and rigorously test this possibility via a short-term longitudinal experimental investigation that compares the effects of acute stress on memory between maltreated and demographically matched non-maltreated 12-17-year-olds. In an initial in-person session, youth will be randomly assigned (equal maltreated and non-maltreated youth across age) to complete standardized salient personal activities that are experimentally manipulated to vary in whether they induce higher or lower levels of acute stress. Immediately afterward, youth will complete an encoding task comprised of positive, negative, and neutral images. In subsequent sessions (two remote and one in person) spanning approximately one month, youth's memory will be tested for the images via a recognition task asking them to discriminate previously seen from unseen images and for the personal activities via recall and direct questions that probe for the extent and accuracy of memory. Youth's rumination about the personal activities will also be measured. The project's main hypothesis is that maltreatment will lead to particularly robust memory for the personal activities, but only when the youth complete these under conditions of high stress. By contrast, because the emotional and neutral images are not personally meaningful, maltreatment is expected to constrain youth's memory performance for the images. It is also hypothesized that rumination will serve as an important mediator of the links between stress and memory for the higher stress personal activities, most notably in the maltreated youth. Overall, the project's results will provide much-needed knowledge about the precise ways that maltreatment shapes different facets of youth's memory, knowledge. This knowledge will be enormously valuable in improving trust in maltreated youth's reporting of stressful experiences and hence in directing interventions for victimized youth.
Will I have to stop taking my current medications?
The trial does not specify whether participants need to stop taking their current medications. However, if you are on steroid or hormonal treatments, you may not be eligible to participate.
What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment Acute stress manipulation for memory loss?
Research suggests that stress hormones can enhance memory consolidation (the process of stabilizing a memory after learning) but impair memory retrieval (the process of recalling information) when stress occurs at different times. This indicates that manipulating stress could potentially be used to improve memory retention by timing stress exposure appropriately.12345
Is acute stress manipulation generally safe for humans?
Research on acute stress manipulation suggests that stress can affect memory in different ways, sometimes enhancing and sometimes impairing it. The safety of this treatment in humans isn't directly addressed, but the studies indicate that stress responses can vary based on individual factors like age, sex, and stress reactivity.16789
How does the treatment 'Acute stress manipulation' differ from other treatments for memory loss?
Acute stress manipulation is unique because it focuses on altering stress responses to improve memory, unlike traditional treatments that may not address stress directly. This approach leverages the understanding that stress can both impair and enhance memory, depending on timing and context, offering a novel way to potentially treat memory loss by modulating stress-related neural mechanisms.3471011
Eligibility Criteria
This trial is for maltreated and non-maltreated youth aged 12-17 who can participate in a study about how stress affects memory. The goal is to understand if those with a history of maltreatment remember stressful experiences better than their peers.Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
Timeline
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
Initial Session
Youth are randomly assigned to complete standardized salient personal activities with varying stress levels, followed by an encoding task with images.
Memory Testing
Youth's memory is tested for images and personal activities through recognition and recall tasks.
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for memory performance and rumination over time.
Treatment Details
Interventions
- Acute stress manipulation
Find a Clinic Near You
Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
University of California, Irvine
Lead Sponsor
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Collaborator