Reduced salivary oxytocin after an empathic induction task in Intimate Partner Violence perpetrators: Importance of socio-affective functions and its impact on prosocial behavior.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been linked to difficulties in socio-affective functions. Nevertheless, the underlying psychobiological mechanisms that might be responsible for them remain unclear. Oxytocin (OXT) stands out as an important hormone that may favor the salience of social information, due to its relevance in empathy and prosocial behavior. Thus, the study of salivary OXT (sOXT) may provide further information about potential impairments in social cognition in IPV perpetrators. This study analyzed the effects of an empathic induction task, performed through negative emotion-eliciting videos, on endogenous sOXT levels, mood state, and emotional perception in 30 IPV perpetrators compared to 32 controls. Additionally, we explored their performance on prosocial behavior after the empathic induction task, using Hare's donation procedure. Lower sOXT levels were found in IPV perpetrators after the task compared to controls, along with a general decreasing tendency in their sOXT levels. Additionally, IPV perpetrators exhibited no change in their mood state and perceived others' emotions as more positive and less intense. Moreover, the mood state response and alexithymia traits, respectively, positively and negatively predicted the sOXT levels after the empathic induction task in the entire sample. Finally, we did not observe a lower appearance of prosocial behaviors in IPV perpetrators; however, higher sOXT levels after the empathic induction task were found in subjects who donated when considering the whole sample. In sum, IPV perpetrators exhibited differences in their sOXT levels when empathizing, compared to controls, with alexithymia and the emotional response potentially explaining the sOXT levels after the task. Furthermore, prosocial behavior was more related to these sOXT levels than to IPV. As our knowledge about the emotional processing of IPV perpetrators increases, we will be better able to develop and include coadjutant treatments in current psychotherapeutic programs, in order to focus on their emotional needs, which, in turn, would reduce the future risk of recidivism.

Cognitive Flexibility and Reaction Time Improvements After Cognitive Training Designed for Men Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence: Results of a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose Current interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators are designed to reduce IPV recidivism by treating risk factors and increasing protective factors. However, these interventions pay less attention to cognitive functioning in IPV perpetrators and how these variables interfere with the future risk of recidivism. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to compare the effectiveness of Standard Intervention Programs for men who perpetrate IPV [SIP] + cognitive training vs SIP + placebo training in promoting cognitive improvements and reducing recidivism. Furthermore, we also aimed to assess whether changes in the risk of recidivism would be related to cognitive changes after the intervention. Method IPV perpetrators who agreed to participate were randomly allocated to receive SIP + cognitive training or SIP + placebo training. Several cognitive variables were assessed before and after the interventions with a complete battery of neuropsychological tests assessing processing speed, memory, attention, executive functions, and emotion decoding abilities. Moreover, we also assessed the risk of recidivism. Results Our data pointed out that only the IPV perpetrators who received the SIP + cognitive training improved their processing speed and cognitive flexibility after this intervention. Furthermore, these participants presented the lowest risk of recidivism after the intervention. Nonetheless, cognitive improvements and reductions in the risk of recidivism after the intervention were unrelated. Conclusions Our study reinforces the importance of implementing cognitive training to reduce risk of recidivism after SIP. Hence, these results might encourage professionals to incorporate neuropsychological variables in IPV intervention programs.

Role of major long fiber tracts association in empathy. / Papel de los tractos de fibras largas de asociacion en la empatia.

INTRODUCTION: The empathic capacity is a field of research that has been studied from various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, or ethology and recently the field of neuroscience has been added. Thus, there has been an increase in studies using structural and functional neuroimaging, which has allowed to establish the brain structures that underlie its functioning. On the other hand, the appearance of measurement instruments such as diffusion tensor, have allowed us to begin to understand the role of white matter and neural connectivity in empathy. AIM: To review the results obtained from the relation of the long fiber tracts of association with the functions associated with the empathic capacity. Emphasis is placed on the division of empathy into its cognitive and affective components. DEVELOPMENT: The scientific literature has been revised using the Google Scholar, Science Research, Chemedia, PubMed, Dialnet and Teseo search engines. CONCLUSIONS: Both the functions associated with empathic capacity and empathy itself appear to be related to white matter fascicles. Likewise, in disorders characterized by a deficit in empathy, a relationship is suggested between the white matter tracts and alterations in important functions so that the empathic capacity dies. In this sense, the white matter tracts most related to empathy are the fronto-occipital fasciculus, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the uncinate fasciculus. Considering these results, it could be argued that neuronal connectivity, independently of structural and functional aspects, could play an important role in empathic function.

TITLE: Papel de los tractos de fibras largas de asociacion en la empatia.Introduccion. La capacidad empatica es un campo de investigacion que se ha estudiado desde varias disciplinas, como la psicologia, la filosofia o la etologia y, recientemente, la neurociencia. Ultimamente ha habido un incremento del interes en el estudio de la empatia, y el incremento de las investigaciones que hacen uso de la neuroimagen ha permitido establecer las estructuras cerebrales que subyacen a su funcionamiento. En suma, la aparicion de instrumentos de medida in vivo, como la imagen con tensores de difusion, ha permitido comenzar a comprender el papel de la sustancia blanca y la conectividad neuronal en la empatia. Objetivo. Revisar los resultados obtenidos de la relacion de los tractos de fibras largas de asociacion con las funciones asociadas a la capacidad empatica. Se enfatiza la division de la empatia en su componente cognitivo y afectivo. Desarrollo. Se ha revisado la bibliografia cientifica usando los buscadores Google Scholar, Science Research, Chemedia, PubMed, Dialnet y Teseo. Conclusiones. Tanto la capacidad empatica como sus funciones asociadas parecen estar relacionadas con los fasciculos de sustancia blanca. En los trastornos caracterizados por un deficit socioafectivo tambien parece existir una relacion entre los tractos de sustancia blanca y las alteraciones en funciones importantes para que se de la empatia. Los tractos mas vinculados con la funcion empatica son el fasciculo frontooccipital, los fasciculos longitudinales inferior y superior, y el fasciculo uncinado. A la luz de estos resultados se podria argumentar que la conectividad neuronal, independientemente de aspectos estructurales y funcionales, podria desempeñar un papel importante en la funcion empatica.