ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05711082MORDORUpdated Jun 12, 2026

REALITY MONITORING AND DOPAMINE

An interventional study of Précurseur de la dopamine and antagoniste D2 in Neurosciences, sponsored by Hôpital le Vinatier. Recruiting at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 45 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-12.

Sponsored by Hôpital le Vinatier · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jan 2024; still recruiting 2 years 9 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
39
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 45 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Reality-monitoring characterizes the ability to determine whether information was perceived in the environment or only imagined . Impaired reality-monitoring abilities have been associated with hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia and patients with Parkinson's disease.

The investigators hypothesize a link between dopaminergic (DA) transmission and reality-monitoring.

Read the detailed description

This hypothesis is based on several studies in the literature: 1) DA transmission anomalies are observed in both schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease; 2) DA agonists may induce hallucination; 3) DA antagonists reduce hallucinations and improve reality-monitoring abilities in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, also suggesting a link between mesocorticolimbic connectivity, subcortical DA transmission and reality-monitoring, The investigators have shown that fronto-temporal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) leads:

  • on the one hand, to modulate reality-monitoring performance in healthy volunteers and patients;
  • on the other hand, to induce subcortical DA release. However, to date, no study has yet explored the direct link between DA transmission and reality-monitoring.
02

Conditions studied

  • Neurosciences
03

In context

Lead sponsor

Hôpital le Vinatier is the lead sponsor of 106 studies on the registry; 41 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 45 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Healthy volunteers who have given their written
  • Men and women from 18 to 45 years old
  • Normal or corrected vision
  • Being fluent in French or French for native language
  • Being affiliated with health insurance

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy volunteers who have given their written
  • Men and women from 18 to 45 years old
  • Normal or corrected vision
  • Being fluent in French or French for native language
  • Being affiliated with health insurance
  • Inadmissibility of the subject's consent or refusal
  • Working-memory deficit (as controlled with score\< 23)
  • Any past or current psychiatric or somatic condition(as controlled with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, MINI)
  • Any past or current neurological condition
  • History of cranio-cerebral trauma, arterial hypotension or hypertension, cardiological or serious medical condition
  • Abnormal potassium dosage (below 3.1 mmol/L or above 4.9 mmol/L)
  • Anormal
  • History of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in first-degree relatives
  • Alcohol-drinking and caffeine intake at least during 24 hours before each session
  • Drug therapy excepting
  • Cardiologic or severe medical conditio
  • Pregnancy(checked with a pregnancy autotest), lactation, or insufficient contraceptive measure (precautionary measure)
  • Consumption of recreational drugs during the last 6 months
  • Known sensitivity to any of the study medication and their
  • Lactose intolerance
  • Porphyria
  • Hepatic insufficiency
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

MMSE and MoCA

Short tests of memory and thinking, each scored out of 30. Lower scores suggest more difficulty; criteria give a range, either to include people with memory problems or to leave them out.

ECG (electrocardiogram)

A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Excipients

The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
39 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Dopamine precursor

    In the first condition, volunteers will receive a dopamine (DA) precursor (L-dopa, 100mg). L-dopa will be combined with a dose of an Aromatic amino acid decarboxylase inhibitor (Benserazide) 25mg to multiplicate its bioavailability and with a dose of domperidone 10mg (peripheral antagonist of DA) to minimize the risk of side effects.

    Other: Précurseur de la dopamine

  • Active comparator
    D2 antagonist

    In the second condition, volunteers will receive a D2 antagonist (Sulpiride, 800mg)

    Other: antagoniste D2

  • Placebo comparator
    PLACEBO

    In the third condition, volunteers will receive a placebo (lactose)

    Other: PLACEBO

Interventions

  • OtherPrécurseur de la dopamine

    In the first condition, volunteers will receive a 100mg dose of L-dopa, 25mg dose of Aromatic amino acid decarboxylase inhibitors (Benserazide) and 10mg dose of Domperidone. In the second condition, volunteers will receive Sulpiride 800mg. In the third condition, volunteers will receive placebo Reality-monitoring performances will be evaluated with a standardized task. Working-memory will be evaluated with the n-back task. Self-monitoring performances will be observed during a speech production experiment in which speakers monitor their auditory feedback while speaking. Speech Bayesian reasoning: This task is a home-made task investigating the influence of prior on speech processing. Subjects will be required to identify speech in ambiguous auditory stimuli. Visual Bayesian reasoning: This task investigates the influence of prior on visual processing. Subjects will be required to recognize morph between faces and house.

  • Otherantagoniste D2

    In the second condition, volunteers will receive Sulpiride 800 mg

  • OtherPLACEBO

    In the third condition, volunteers will receive placebo

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Reality-monitoring performance

    Measured with a behavioral task developed, validated and used in investigators lab. During the memory retrieval phase, 48 words will be presented, including the 32 words presented during encoding as well as 16 new words. Subjects will be required to identify whether each word was previously heard, imagined or new. Three words lists will be used and assigned randomly depending on the substance condition (L-dopa, Sulpiride, placebo). Each verbal list will include 16 items with the "imagine hear" encoding condition and 16 items with the "listen" encoding condition. A single measure including two variables of interest will account for the main evaluation criteria: * The average conditional source-identification measure (ACSIM) which represents the overall ability to correctly retrieve the source, conditional on that item was recognized as already presented. * The source misattributions,the number of confusions between heard and imagined events.

    Time frame: One month

Secondary outcomes

  1. Reaction times at the reality-monitoring task and scores of subjective confidence rating for reality-monitoring responses

    Regarding reality-monitoring, a single test in which investigators will also measure the reaction times at the reality-monitoring task and scores of subjective confidence rating for reality-monitoring responses. The variable of interest will be the number of high-confident incorrect source-recognition responses. Investigators finally measure the vividness of each "imagined" or "listened" word with Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) from 0 to 100.

    Time frame: One month

  2. Other cognitive tasks

    In the same test investigators will measure the number of correct/incorrect responses and reaction times at the n-back working memory task. * The effect of dopamine modulation on the ability the ability to determine our speech as self-generated will be measured with a self-monitoring task. Investigators measure the magnitude of a voice peak response reflecting the feeling of agency. * The effect of dopamine modulation on perception will be evaluated with the performances measured during 2 home-made Bayesian reasoning tasks, evaluating speech processing and visual processing, respectively.

    Time frame: One month

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Jan 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jan 2027, 36 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 23, 2023
First posted
Feb 2, 2023
StartActual
Jan 15, 2024
Primary completionEst.
Jan 15, 2027
CompletionEst.
Feb 28, 2027
Last update
Jun 12, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 12, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05711082
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Feb 2, 2023
Start date
Jan 15, 2024
Primary completion
Jan 15, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Feb 28, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Jun 12, 2026

Study contacts

JEROME BRUNELIN
Contact
jerome.brunelin@ch-le-vinatier.fr
0033437915565
VERONIQUE VIAL
Contact
veronique.vial@ch-le-vinatier.fr
0033437915522
FILIPE GALVAO
principal investigator · Centre Hospitalier le Vinatier

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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