Effects of Ketamine on Mentalizing and Metacognition in Healthy Volunteers

Randomised, triple-blind, parallel-group study in healthy volunteers comparing intravenous ketamine infusion (target plasma 100 ng/ml with initial bolus) to saline placebo during performance of a video-based mentalizing (MASC) task in the fMRI scanner.

Aim is to experimentally induce social-cognitive alterations resembling over- or undermentalizing to study neural correlates of theory-of-mind and metacognition using fMRI and behavioural task measures.

Outcomes include task performance on the MASC paradigm, fMRI measures, and safety/tolerability assessments in a healthy adult sample.