Emotion Recognition Training in Antisocial Violent Offenders With Psychopathic Traits

NCT03382808 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: SCHO 1448/3-1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 80
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Impaired recognition of affective facial expressions has been conclusively linked to antisocial and psychopathy. However, little is known about the modifiability of this deficit. This study aims to investigate whether and under which circumstances the proposed perceptual insensitivity can be addressed with a brief implicit training approach.

Conditions

Psychopathy; Violent Aggressive Behavior; Emotional Problem

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Animated morph task

  Morphed images are presented, beginning with the neutral face that progresses into one of the six affective expressions. This procedure creates the impression of an animated clip depicting the development of facial emotive expressions. Participants are instructed to press a button as soon as they are able to identify the emerging expression.

  change from pre-treatment to post-treatment after 8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Unconscious processing of affective facial expressions during interocular suppression in a breaking Continuous flash suppression paradigm

  pre-treatment, after 8 weeks (post-treatment)

• Eye-Tracking

  pre-treatment, after 8 weeks (post-treatment)

• Ambivalence Task

  pre-treatment, after 8 weeks (post-treatment)

• Emotional search paradigm

  pre-treatment, after 8 weeks (post-treatment)

• Affective prosody

  pre-treatment, after 8 weeks (post-treatment)

Study Arms (2)

SEE Training

EXPERIMENTAL

The training sequence comprises four weekly sessions using a modified dote-probe paradigm (fearful vs. neutral expression).

Behavioral: SEE Training

GAZE Training

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The GAZE training sequence comprises four weekly sessions using a modified dote-probe paradigm (averted vs. directed gaze).

Behavioral: GAZE Training

Interventions

SEE Training BEHAVIORAL

Participants are first presented with a fixation cross which indicates the beginning of a trial and is immediately followed by a bilateral presentation of a neutral and a fearful image (face) of the same model identity. The fearful expression is always replaced by an arrow pointing to the left or the right which remaines active until the participant indicates via button-press which direction the arrow is pointing to. The model identity, the position of the fearful cue and the arrow probe direction are pseudo-randomized across trials with no more than three identical sequential occurrences on each parameter. Each session consists of 360 trials in total, with 120 distinct trial types and three repetitions. Participants are trained with neutral and 75% fearful expressions only in the first session; the intensity of the fearful cue is successively decreased by 15% at every subsequent session.

SEE Training

GAZE Training BEHAVIORAL

Participants are first presented with a fixation cross, which indicates the beginning of a trial and is immediately followed by a bilateral presentation of a direct gaze-image (neutral face) and an image of a neutral face (same model identity) displaying deviated gaze. The averted gaze-face is always replaced by an arrow pointing to the left or the right which remaines active until the participant indicates via button-press which direction the arrow is pointing to. The model identity, the position of the fearful cue and the arrow probe direction are pseudo-randomized across trials with no more than three identical sequential occurrences on each parameter. Each session consists of 360 trials in total, with 120 distinct trial types and three repetitions. Participants are trained with direct and 100% averted gaze images only in the first session; the intensity of the deviated gaze cue is successively decreased by 20% at every subsequent session.

GAZE Training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: male
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Confirmed ASPD diagnosis
• PCL-Score available
• arrested for committing violent crimes

You may not qualify if:

• Insufficient knowledge of the German language
• Diagnosed with schizophrenia
• Substance abuse
• Neurological disease (e.g. epilepsy)
• Mental retardation

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital Tuebingen: lead
• German Research Foundation: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Tübingen

Tübingen, Baden Würrtemberg, 72074, Germany

RECRUITING

Related Publications (2)

• Schonenberg M, Christian S, Gausser AK, Mayer SV, Hautzinger M, Jusyte A. Addressing perceptual insensitivity to facial affect in violent offenders: first evidence for the efficacy of a novel implicit training approach. Psychol Med. 2014 Apr;44(5):1043-52. doi: 10.1017/S0033291713001517. Epub 2013 Jul 1.

  PMID: 23809680 BACKGROUND

• Gibbon S, Khalifa NR, Cheung NH, Vollm BA, McCarthy L. Psychological interventions for antisocial personality disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Sep 3;9(9):CD007668. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007668.pub3.

  PMID: 32880104 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Antisocial Personality Disorder; Aggression

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personality Disorders; Mental Disorders; Aberrant Motor Behavior in Dementia; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Social Behavior

Study Officials

• Michael Schönenberg, PhD

  University Hospital Tuebingen

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Michael Schönenberg, PhD

CONTACT

004970712978355; michael.schoenenberg@uni-tuebingen.de

Martin Hautzinger, Prof.

CONTACT

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 12, 2017
• First Posted: December 26, 2017
• Study Start: April 1, 2017
• Primary Completion: March 1, 2019
• Study Completion: December 31, 2019
• Last Updated: December 26, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

DE (1)