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Addressing perceptual insensitivity to facial affect in violent offenders: first evidence for the efficacy of a novel implicit training approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2013

M. Schönenberg ,
S. Christian ,
A.-K. Gaußer ,
S. V. Mayer ,
M. Hautzinger  and
A. Jusyte
M. Schönenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
S. Christian
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
A.-K. Gaußer
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
S. V. Mayer
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
M. Hautzinger
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
A. Jusyte
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Germany
*
*Address for correspondence: Michael Schönenberg, Ph.D., University of Tübingen, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Schleichstraße 4, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. (Email: michael.schoenenberg@uni-tuebingen.de)
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Abstract

Background

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

Method

Facial affect recognition was assessed with an animated morph task, in which the participants (44 male incarcerated violent offenders and 43 matched controls) identified the onset of emotional expressions in animated morph clips that gradually changed from neutral to one of the six basic emotions. Half of the offenders were then implicitly trained to direct attention to salient face regions (attention training, AT) using a modified dot-probe task. The other half underwent the same protocol but the intensity level of the presented expressions was additionally manipulated over the course of training sessions (sensitivity to emotional expressions training, SEE training). Subsequently, participants were reassessed with the animated morph task.

Results

Facial affect recognition was significantly impaired in violent offenders as compared with controls. Further, our results indicate that only the SEE training group exhibited a pronounced improvement in emotion recognition.

Conclusions

We demonstrated for the first time that perceptual insensitivity to facial affect can be addressed by an implicit training that directs attention to salient regions of a face and gradually decreases the intensity of the emotional expression. Future studies should focus on the potential of this intervention to effectively increase empathy and inhibit violent behavior in antisocial individuals.

Keywords

Aggressionfacial affect recognitionpsychopathysensitivity to emotional expressions training
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 44 , Issue 5 , April 2014 , pp. 1043 - 1052
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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