Effects of Propranolol (vs. Placebo) on Information Processing During Presentation of Emotionally Arousing Pictures
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The main objective of the present study is to combine two lines of research, investigating
the interaction between emotional processing and memory performance (on both behavioral and
electrophysiological levels) and its modulation by ß-blockade.
Concerning pharmacological manipulations with ß-blockers, there are no studies, which
investigated the effects of propranolol on electrophysiological (ERPs) and behavioral
measures of recognition memory along with their codependence on individual variations of
adrenergic receptors' polymorphisms. Till now, also the findings about genetic influences of
ADRB1 and ADRB2 on recognition memory for emotional contents are lacking.
Therefore, the current investigation has been designed to replicate the former results which
revealed reduced ERP correlates of recognition memory for emotional pictures due to
administration of ß-blocker propranolol. Furthermore investigators goal is to test, whether
there are any differences between carriers of genetic variants of the ADRB1 and ADRB2 in
memory performance and/or changes in event-related potentials and in propranolol influences
on the above mentioned processes.
In conclusion, investigators hypothesize: (1) a memory advantage of emotionally arousing
stimuli over emotionally neutral pictures; (2) more pronounced ERP components (EPN, LPP,
old-new effect) associated with encoding and memory for emotional stimuli; (3) a reduction of
electrocortical correlates of emotional recognition memory (old-new effect) caused by
propranolol; (4) a potential impact of genetic variants of the ADRB1 and ADRB2 on the
emotional information processing and memory formation alone, and on the propranolol
modulation of those processes.
Furthermore, investigators hypothesize additional pharmacodynamic effects of propranolol such
as influence on skin- conductance, pulse waves, burdening heart frequency, pulmonary function
and metabolomics, which might depend on the ADRB1 and ADRB2 genotype.