Examining the Effectiveness of Dynamic Visual Noise (DVN) for Reducing Alcohol Cravings and Consumption in College Students

Official title

A Theory-Informed Examination of a Brief Visuospatial Intervention and Its Mechanisms for Reducing Alcohol Cravings and Consumption

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether dynamic visual noise (DVN), a short video array of rapidly moving black and white squares, reduces cravings for and consumption of alcohol in college students who drink alcohol and experience cravings for alcohol at least once a week on average. A second goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether changes in attentional bias towards alcohol (that is, the tendency to pay greater mental and visual attention towards alcohol over other things in one's environment) is a mechanism by which DVN reduces alcohol cravings and consumption. Researchers will compare DVN to static visual noise (SVN), which is a still image of black and white squares that has been used as a control condition for DVN in prior literature. Participants will: 1. Visit the laboratory once to complete the baseline data collection 2. Watch the DVN or SVN every day for seven days (including the day of the laboratory visit) 3. Complete daily follow-ups for six days following the day of the laboratory visit 4. Complete a final follow-up on the seventh day following the laboratory visit

Interventions

• Other Dynamic Visual Noise (DVN)
  DVN is a brief visual array of patterns of flickering black and white dots. In alignment with prior literature, the DVN array will consist of an 80 x 80 grid of 4 x 4 black and white pixel squares that will change at a rate of 640 frames per second. The DVN will be 30 seconds in duration, though participants will be able to keep watching for as long as desired by restarting the video of the array.
• Other Static Visual Noise (SVN)
  SVN is similar to DVN, but refers to a static (or still) image of an array of black and white squares. The SVN will consist of an 80 x 80 grid of 4 x 4 black and white pixel squares. SVN has been used in previous working memory-loading studies as a control for DVN. Similar to the DVN, participants in the control group will view the SVN for at least 30 seconds (but they will be able to keep viewing it for as long as desired).

Primary outcome measures

• Strength of Alcohol Craving [Time frame: Baseline and 1-week follow-up]
• Frequency of Craving [Time frame: Baseline and 1-week follow-up]
• Alcohol Consumption [Time frame: Baseline and 1-week follow-up]
• Attentional Bias towards Alcohol [Time frame: Baseline and 1-week follow-up]

Secondary outcome measures (2)

• Immediate Changes in Strength of Alcohol Craving Before and After DVN/SVN Task [Time frame: Baseline]
• Immediate Changes in Strength of Craving Before and After DVN/SVN [Time frame: 1-Week Intervention Period, Between Baseline Visit and 1-week Follow-Up]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Must report being between the age of 18 and 29
• Must report drinking alcohol at least once per week on average over the past month
• Must report having drank beer or alcoholic seltzers in the past month
• Must endorse experiencing craving at least once per week over the past month, on average
• Must report not currently receiving nor planning to seek any other treatment for their alcohol use within the next 30 days
• Must report owning a personal electronic device with access to the Internet
• Must report owning or having access to a computer with access to the Internet

Exclusion criteria

• Major visual impairment (i.e., legal blindness or color blindness)
• History of seizures and/or diagnosed seizure disorder
• Current medical diagnosis provided by a qualified professional (i.e., psychologist, psychiatrist, neurologist) that is characterized by cognitive impairment (i.e., neurocognitive disorder due to traumatic brain injury, traumatic brain injury, HIV infection, post-concussive syndrome, and intellectual disability)
• Concussion in the past month
• A current diagnosis of any substance use disorder besides alcohol use disorder, as determined by a qualified professional (i.e., psychologist, psychiatrist)

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Basic science

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• University of Wyoming — Laramie

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07157124 · IRB-2025-162

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗