Recruiting

Novel Exposure

Sponsor:

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Code:

NCT06526260

Conditions

Social Anxiety Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 16 - 22

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Very Brief Exposure to Facial Expressions

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to identify the circuit activations by very brief exposure (VBE) among youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD) in order to develop a novel intervention for those with SAD. The secondary objectives of this study are to measure the effect of VBE on subjective fear ratings, and participants' awareness and tolerance of the exposure stimuli.

  • The primary outcome of this study is the mean activation of frontostriatal and prefrontal brain regions to facial stimuli, as measured by Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) response, in 4 regions of interest during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  • Another primary outcome of the study is to identify networks of regions subserving emotion regulation and attention, as measured by BOLD response of corresponding brain regions.

Secondary Outcomes

-The secondary outcome of this study is the fear induced by exposure to facial expression stimuli as measured by a 4-point fear scale during the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after each block of 10 facial expression stimuli trials.

Participants will participate in an interview where they will answer questions both inside and outside of the MRI scan. Participants will be asked to rate on a scale the imagines they see while undergoing MRI scan.

Conditions

Social Anxiety Disorder

Study ID

NCT06526260

Start date

Aug 14, 2024

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Oct 30, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Oct 30, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 16 - 22

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patient Population

  • Males and females aged 16-22. This age range corresponds with our prior studies of very brief exposure (VBE) in Specific Phobia and will include older adolescents while minimizing potential developmental effects on circuit activation.
  • Youth with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) on Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children, Computerized version (K-SADS-COMP) for youth ages 16-17, or the computerized version of Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-5 (NetSCID) for youth ages 18+.
  • Healthy Population

• Male and female youth aged 16-22.
  • Parents • Parent/caregiver of all ages, no restrictions who are fluent in either English or Spanish.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient Population

  • Primary language other than English or Spanish.
  • Active suicidality on the Colombia-Suicide Severity Scale (plan, intent, or behavior)
  • Ferromagnetic implants (e.g., pacemaker), metal braces, retainers, tattoos or permanent make-up with metallic content, transdermal medicinal patches that cannot be removed.
  • Current psychoactive medication.
  • Lifetime diagnosis of: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), psychotic, bipolar, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability on the KSADS-COMP or NetSCID.
  • Any serious neurological or medical conditions (e.g., Lupus, cancer, human immunodeficiency virus positive (HIV+)) as reported by potential participants.
  • Current Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis.
  • Current severe substance abuse (except tobacco/nicotine).
  • Pregnancy, as determined by the participant's self-report prior to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.
  • Healthy Population

  • Primary language other than English or Spanish.
  • Lifetime disorders: any anxiety disorders, OCD, psychotic, bipolar, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability; any psychiatric disorder in the past 2 years
  • Current depression disorder.
  • Active psychiatric disorder in the past 2 years.
  • Serious neurological or medical conditions.
  • Current psychoactive medication.
  • Ferromagnetic implants (e.g., pacemaker), metal braces, retainers, tattoos or permanent make-up with metallic content, transdermal medicinal patches that cannot be removed.
  • Active suicidality on the Colombia-Suicide Severity Scale (plan, intent, or behavior).
  • Pregnancy, as determined by the participant's self-report prior to the MRI scan.
  • Parents • Primary language other than English or Spanish.

Study Design

Enrollment

80 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Image Exposure Arm

Participants will see various images of facial expressions on a computer screen and provide various rating scores about them.

Interventions

Very Brief Exposure to Facial Expressions

In Very Brief Exposure (VBE): a series of rapid micro- exposures to images depicting feared stimuli (e.g., for SAD, judgmental faces). Each image is followed by a masking stimulus to prevent its conscious recognition. This sequence of image-mask stimuli is repeated many times in an exposure session.

Primary outcome measure

  • Mean Activation of Frontostriatal and Prefrontal Brain Regions to disgusted facial expression in Social Anxiety [ Time Frame: Day 2 ]
  • Mean activation of regions subserving emotion, emotion regulation, and attention processing. Mean deactivation of the Default Mode Network. [ Time Frame: Day 2 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Courtney Marcelino

323-361-6456cmarcelino@chla.usc.edu

Bradley S Peterson, MD

323-361-3654bpeterson@chla.usc.edu

Locations

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Recruiting

Los Angeles, California, United States, 90027

Contacts

Courtney Marcelino

3233616456cmarcelino@chla.usc.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Last update posted

Jul 29, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • Youth
  • Very Brief Exposure

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Children's Hospital Los Angeles on 2026-07-29.