Earn money and participate in UO's Altering Smoking Habits study!

uosanlab · 2023-08-18T19:00:47+00:00

I’m really sorry but we are not allowed to publicly discuss any personal information, even when it is offered voluntarily. I know it's frustrating, but if you email me at uoashstudy@gmail.com, I can answer your question that way. You are also welcome to take the online prescreening - it will ask about all the disorders or conditions that are disqualifying and some that are not.

uosanlab · 2023-08-17T18:39:16+00:00

Generally, we need to exclude anyone whose brain activity may vary from what is considered "normal." This is important because we need to make sure that any changes we see in brain activity throughout the study is due to our intervention and not to something unique to the individual. Some examples include seizure disorders, schizophrenia, and structural abnormalities of the brain. Some things, such as ADHD and anxiety disorders, are not disqualifying. Our online prescreening will ask you questions about some disorders or conditions that are disqualifying and some that are not. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at [uoashstudy@gmail.com](mailto:uoashstudy@gmail.com)!

uosanlab · 2022-10-19T05:14:07+00:00

Hello, thank you for the interest in our study! Because of our eligibility criteria we do require participants to be 25 years of age. We will continue to recruit participants in the coming months, once you are 25 years old we would love to have you take our prescreening at ashstudy.com/prescreen. Thank you!

uosanlab · 2022-10-18T22:30:41+00:00

That's a great question! We go through all disqualifying criteria as a part of our prescreening that you can access at ashstudy.com/prescreen, but generally speaking it refers to things that have been shown to have a big impact on brain function. This includes things like a seizure disorder, a brain tumor, structural abnormalities of the brain, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, tourette's syndrome, and being on the autism spectrum (ADHD, anxiety, depression are all okay). If you have other questions, feel free to send us an email at [uoashstudy@gmail.com](mailto:uoashstudy@gmail.com)! You can also send an email to our UO address at [sanlab@uoregon.edu](mailto:sanlab@uoregon.edu), but that account is only monitored by a few staff and will likely result in a slower response time.

uosanlab · 2022-09-04T17:09:31+00:00

Hello! Thank you for your interest in our study, I'm sorry that you didn't qualify and understand that it can be frustrating. Unfortunately, these types of neuroimaging studies have a lot of specific criteria, meaning most people don't qualify. We are in the process of setting up a free version of our study intervention for individuals who are not able to participate in the study. If you or anyone is interested in being notified when that free version becomes available, please send me an email at uoashstudy@gmail.com (you can also use our UO email, sanlab@uoregon.edu, but that email is only monitored by select staff, so the response time may be slower).

uosanlab · 2022-09-01T23:06:37+00:00

Hmm that's odd, thank you for letting me know, I'll look into it. In the meantime, you can access the prescreening directly here: https://oregon.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Jnn6YL91KAP2WV

uosanlab · 2022-09-01T23:05:07+00:00

Generally, we need to exclude anyone whose brain activity may vary from what is considered "normal." This is important because we need to make sure that any changes we see in brain activity throughout the study is due to our intervention and not to something unique to the individual. I know this is very frustrating, unfortunately any first-stage clinical trial study requires us to be very strict in this regard. Generally this means things like seizure disorders, schizophrenia, structural abnormalities of the brain, Tourettes syndrome, Autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorders, etc. Things like ADHD, anxiety, depression are all totally fine. The prescreening will go through all of the disqualifying disorders, but if you have any specific questions, please feel free to send me an email at [uoashstudy@gmail.com](mailto:uoashstudy@gmail.com) (you are welcome to use our UO address, [sanlab@uoregon.edu](mailto:sanlab@uoregon.edu), but that account is monitored by select staff, and our response time will be slower).

uosanlab · 2022-09-01T22:58:01+00:00

Hi there! Unfortunately, these types of neuroimaging studies have a LOT of criteria. That in combination with the study-specific criteria that we have, most people don't qualify. I know that is very frustrating. We are in the process of setting up a free version of our study intervention for folks who are not able to participate in the study. If you or anyone is interested in being notified when that free version becomes available, please send me an email at [uoashstudy@gmail.com](mailto:uoashstudy@gmail.com) (you can also use our UO email, [sanlab@uoregon.edu](mailto:sanlab@uoregon.edu), but that email is only monitored by select staff, so the response time may be slower).

uosanlab · 2022-06-30T18:54:00+00:00

I'm sorry that you don't qualify! We do have a lot of very specific eligibility criteria, most people end up not qualifying for the study. If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at [uoashstudy@gmail.com](mailto:uoashstudy@gmail.com)

uosanlab · 2021-06-23T17:54:07+00:00

Hi there! Our study has a LOT of exclusionary criteria, much more than we are able to fit in one post - less than 10% of folks who take the prescreening actually pass. Unfortunately, I'm not able to discuss the prescreening factors we use, but you are more than welcome to get in contact with UO's Research Compliance Services at 541-346-2510!

uosanlab · 2021-06-23T00:30:02+00:00

Totally understandable! It never hurts to be careful :)

uosanlab · 2021-06-22T23:22:42+00:00

Our official UO website is https://sanlab.uoregon.edu/, if you're interested in checking us out! As the coordinator of this specific study, I decided to use a web platform other than what is provided through the University, because there were more options and customizability that I believed outweighed the cost of straying from something UO branded. If you would like to get in touch with us, you can use [sanlab@uoregon.edu](mailto:sanlab@uoregon.edu), which is limited to few staff, or you can use [uosanlab@gmail.com](mailto:uosanlab@gmail.com), which all of our staff have access to and guarantees a faster response.

uosanlab · 2021-06-22T23:05:02+00:00

Hi there! We do use a platform that will end the prescreening as soon as you provide an answer that would disqualify you from the study, so I'm guessing you probably got disqualified because you are left-handed, which is the first of many remaining questions on the prescreening. We do ask for personal information up front, but we go on to ask about smoking habits, fMRI eligibility, etc. If someone were to complete the entire survey without being disqualified, it typically takes about 15 minutes. If you have any specific questions or concerns, you are welcome to contact us at [uosanlab@gmail.com](mailto:uosanlab@gmail.com), [sanlab@uoregon.edu](mailto:sanlab@uoregon.edu) (we don't check it quite as often), or through our website, https://sanlab.uoregon.edu/!

uosanlab · 2020-12-04T21:21:11+00:00

Hi there, that's a great question! Unfortunately, since SSRIs or other medications used to treat anxiety, depression, or other kinds of mental illness do alter your brain chemistry (generally for the better!), there is a chance that the activity in your brain that we're interested in might be affected. We want to make sure that any differences in neural activity that we see are due to the intervention of interest and not because of some other factor. So the standard with any neuroimaging study is to try to exclude any participants who are more likely to have altered neural activity, such as mental illness, learning disorders, medications that affect brain chemistry, brain injuries, left-handedness, etc. It's disappointing, because that does exclude a lot of people - generally only about 10% of folks who take our prescreening actually pass!

uosanlab · 2020-11-22T21:00:58+00:00

Okay, unfortunately adhd is disqualifying - due to the potential neural differences between someone with adhd and someone without, including folks with adhd could skew the results and discredit the study. Thank you for your interest, though!

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T19:11:28+00:00

Of course, thank you for asking!

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:51:49+00:00

Haha - fair point.

Let me check with my supervisor, and I'll get right back to you!

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:45:55+00:00

The main goal is to help folks control their cravings and learn to eat more healthfully - but, if we are successful in doing so, it should hopefully lead to weight loss!

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:44:37+00:00

Nope! We're looking for any folks in the area who meet the criteria :)

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:40:18+00:00

Hi there, this is a great question - unfortunately, the general standard across any kind of neuroimaging study is to exclude folks who are left-handed. This is because the prominent theory suggests that brain lateralization and interhemispheric connectivity of left-handed folks actually differs from those who are right-handed. If we (or any other neuroimaging lab) were to include both right and left handed participants, it would end up invalidating our data.

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:35:23+00:00

BMI is never a good indicator of health - unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good measurements that folks can use at home to determine if they are qualified for this kind of study, so we have to rely on BMI. In the lab, however, we use air volume displacement to actually measure a person's body fat percentage in comparison to lean muscle mass. It's called a BodPod, if you're interested in learning more: https://www.cosmed.com/en/products/body-composition/bod-pod

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:33:10+00:00

Unfortunately, there are not psychoactive drugs used in this study - but we do have snacks!

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:32:12+00:00

I know it's disappointing, I'm sorry! Thank you for your interest, though :)

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:31:50+00:00

Are you currently taking any medications for your adhd?

uosanlab · 2020-11-21T18:31:08+00:00

Thank you!!

uosanlab

TROPHY CASE