Luis Moya-Albiol

Background: The interplay between intervention dropout and increased recidivism among men convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) underscores the need for a model that investigates the underlying variables associated with IPV perpetrator dropout. While sociodemographic factors are traditional predictors of dropout, the potential role of cognitive functioning remains insufficiently researched. This study examined whether certain neuropsychological domains, previously signaled by the scientific literature, including general intelligence, cognitive flexibility, planning abilities, verbal fluency, attention, and working memory, were associated with treatment attrition among IPV perpetrators. Methods: Participants (n = 309) underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (K-BIT, WCST, BADS, CPT-III, and WAIS-III) prior to a court-mandated program. Results: The final regression model indicated that higher perseverative errors (WCST), lower nonverbal IQ, impaired planning abilities (Key Search Test), and a higher number of omissions in the CPT-III were significantly associated with dropout while controlling for alcohol misuse and sociodemographic variables. The overall predictive power of the neuropsychological model was moderate, offering a valuable, although complementary, framework to traditional models that only focus on sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: Early screening of neuropsychological variables could potentially help predict which individuals are at high risk of dropout. While these observational findings require external validation, integrating cognitive considerations into intervention planning warrants further investigation to understand their association with treatment adherence.

Not only does integrating movies into the college classroom represent an opportunity for promoting knowledge, it also increases students’ interest in daily lessons. However, little is known regarding the type of academic movie tasks which might help establish relevant concepts in Psychobiology. Hence, the main objectives of this study were: 1) to analyse whether using commer-cial movies to answer a set of questions would have a positive impact on the acquisition of new concepts; 2) to evaluate whether watching movies presents specific advantages in student perfor-mance when compared to reading books or comic-books by answering the same questions and evaluating student perception regarding satisfaction, commitment, difficulty, and usefulness. Par-ticipants included in our study (n=163) were randomly assigned to either mandatory or voluntary groups. After indicating whether they preferred watching movies or reading books or comic-books they answered specific questions. The total score of both tasks (assessed by two independent reviewers) was collected. In addition, an online survey gathered students’ hobbies and habits before starting the tasks, as well as their perceptions regarding the tasks after completing them. Our study revealed that students preferred watching movies to complete their tasks, which had a positive impact on the students’ learning. Nonetheless, there were no differences between the groups’ (type of stimulus or mandatory character) performance or students’ perception of both tasks. Our study highlights which type of academic tasks could be employed in Psychobiology for consolidating knowledge. Moreover, it reinforces the notion that students’ preferences do not necessarily corre-spond with their performance.

Background/Objectives: Deficits in emotion recognition abilities have been described as risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. However, much of this research is based on self-reports or instruments that present limited psychometric properties. While current scientific literature supports the use of eye tracking to assess cognitive and emotional processes, including emotional decoding abilities, there is a gap in the scientific literature when it comes to measuring these processes in IPV perpetrators using eye tracking in an emotional decoding task. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the association between fixation times via eye tracking and emotional decoding abilities in IPV perpetrators, controlling for potential confounding variables. Methods: To this end, an emotion recognition task was created using an eye tracker in a group of 52 IPV perpetrators. This task consisted of 20 images with people expressing different emotions. For each picture, the facial region was selected as an area of interest (AOI). The fixation times were added to obtain a total gaze fixation time score. Additionally, an ad hoc emotional decoding multiple-choice test about each picture was developed. These instruments were complemented with other self-reports previously designed to measure emotion decoding abilities. Results: The results showed that the longer the total fixation times on the AOI, the better the emotional decoding abilities in IPV perpetrators. Specifically, fixation times explained 20% of the variance in emotional decoding test scores. Additionally, our ad hoc emotional decoding test was significantly correlated with previously designed emotion recognition tools and showed similar reliability to the eyes test. Conclusions: Overall, this pilot study highlights the importance of including eye movement signals to explore attentional processes involved in emotion recognition abilities in IPV perpetrators. This would allow us to adequately specify the therapeutic needs of IPV perpetrators to improve current interventions.

Background: The ability of scientists and clinicians to detect the therapeutic needs of patients with brain damage has increased in recent years. In this sense, many studies have signaled that individuals tend to experience an increase in irritability after suffering brain damage, with some patients even showing sudden aggressive outbursts. This increase in anger expression in these patients could be explained by executive functioning alterations (or executive dysfunctions), given their role in goal-oriented behaviors, along with emotional dysregulations such as alexithymia (e.g., difficulties recognizing and verbalizing feelings) and anger rumination (e.g., tendency to recall thoughts regarding experiences of frustration or anger). Therefore, it is essential to understand the mechanisms that contribute to and/or facilitate anger expression in patients with brain damage. Methods: In this regard, the main objective of this study is to assess whether executive dysfunctions (assessed with the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale) would explain anger expression (measured with the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire) in patients with brain damage (n = 23; mean age: 56.61 ± 10.68; 57% men) compared to controls (n = 24; mean age: 60.96 ± 9.25; 33% men), paying special attention to potential moderators of this association such as alexithymia (analyzed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20) and anger rumination (assessed with the Anger Rumination Scale). Results: The results of the current investigation led us to conclude that anger expression in patients with brain damage was partly explained by executive dysfunction, especially in those patients who scored high in alexithymia. This model was not significant among controls. Conclusions: Thus, we highlight the importance of targeting certain psychological alterations, such as alexithymia, when implementing psychotherapeutic programs as an adjuvant to cognitive training focused on cognitive deficits (e.g., executive dysfunctions). This, in turn, would support the full recovery of individuals who have experienced brain damage.

An aligned facial response to others' emotions has been linked to adaptive social interactions. Interestingly, maladjusted emotional response has been recognized as a significant risk factor for intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW). However, the facial response of IPVAW perpetrators to others' negative emotions remains unclear. The present study analyzes the emotional facial response, as well as self-reported emotions, of IPVAW perpetrators (n = 55) compared to controls (n = 48) during a violence-focused empathic induction task using the "FaceReader" facial coding software. Additionally, we explored the emotional decoding influence on their emotional facial responsiveness. Compared to controls, IPVAW perpetrators exhibited a lower prevalence of sadness facial expression and a higher prevalence of happiness facial expressions during the task, along with reduced self-reported emotionality. Coherently, the lower the sadness facial expression, the lower the self-reported sadness and tenderness. Finally, poorer emotional decoding and belonging to the IPVAW group explained the lower prevalence of sadness and higher prevalence of happiness facial expressions. Our findings provide further evidence supporting a distinctive emotional response pattern to others’ suffering in IPVAW perpetrators. This study provides a promising direction to address the IPVAW occurrence by treating relevant socioaffective deficits, such as emotional responsiveness or emotional decoding.

Neuropsychological assessment has uncovered deficits in several executive functions in substance use disorder (SUD) individuals. Nevertheless, research has reported moderate ecological validity in current neuropsychological paradigms. In this regard, drawing is a well-known cross-cutting task that integrates complex cognitive and affective processes. Therefore, its potential for improving the ecological validity of neuropsychological assessments has been outlined. The aim of the present study was threefold. First, we analyzed the impulsivity and planning capacity of SUD individuals (n = 16) compared to controls (n = 15) through a self-reported questionnaire and a neuropsychological paradigm. Second, we explored the differences between groups in drawing variables by means of the diagnostic drawing series, a validated drawing paradigm. Finally, we examined the relationship between the neuropsychological markers and the drawing variables. Compared to controls, SUD individuals reported higher impulsivity scores and worse planning capacity. Regarding drawing variables, SUD participants needed more time to complete the artwork, occupied more space with a predominant color and reported a lower tendency to use warmer and cooler colors than controls. Additionally, across the whole sample, higher impulsivity and worse planning capacity were related to a greater use of a predominant color. Our findings suggest difficulties in functions related to inhibitory control, as well as an alternative drawing pattern in SUD individuals. Remarkably, poor inhibitory control was associated with less variability in drawing. Together, the present preliminary study seems to reinforces the use of drawing as a valid tool for adding both diagnostic and therapeutic information to classical neuropsychological paradigms.

Empathy deficits have been proposed to be an important factor for intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV perpetrators have shown a differential change in salivary oxytocin (sOXT), testosterone (sT), and cortisol (sC), following empathic and stress tasks, compared to non-violent men. However, the influence of empathic deficits in those hormones after an emotion-induction task in IPV perpetrators remains unclear. We analyzed the effects of an empathic induction task on endogenous sOXT, sT and sC levels, as well as their hormonal ratios, in IPV perpetrators (n = 12), and compared them to controls (n = 12). Additionally, we explored the predictive capacity of empathy-related functions (measured with the interpersonal reactivity index) in the hormonal responses to the task. IPV perpetrators presented lower sOXT changes and higher total sT levels than controls after the task, lower sOXT/T change and total sOXT/T levels, as well as higher total sT/C levels. Notably, for all participants, the lower the perspective taking score, the lower the total sOXT levels and sOXT changes and the higher the sT changes were. Low perspective taking also predicted smaller sOXT/T and sOXT/C changes in the empathic induction task, and higher total sT/C levels for all participants. Therefore, our results could contribute to furthering our ability to focus on new therapeutic targets, increasing the effectiveness of intervention programs and helping to reduce IPV recidivism in the medium term.